G&G 507:
Radiogenic Isotopes and Geochronology
Tentative meeting time: Tuesday, Thursday, 2:30-3:45
PM, KGL 226
Instructor: Peter Reiners; 2-3761; KGL 211.
Text: Readings will be assigned from chapters and
current papers, copies of which will be provided, but I also recommend buying
either (or both) of the Dickin or Faure texts listed at the end of this
syllabus.
On-line resources: http://www.geology.yale.edu/~reiners/classes/radisos.html
Course Rationale and Logistics
A great deal of earth and
planetary science relies on radiogenic isotopes and their use as chronometers in
constraining the timing of events and rates of processes, and as tracers for understanding
fluxes between reservoirs. This course will introduce students to the
fundamentals of radioactive decay and growth, geochronology and
thermochronology, diffusion of elements in minerals and heat in the
lithosphere, and differentiation and recycling processes in the earth and other
solar system objects. The approach will be lectures to supplement reading from
texts and other sources, and active participation in, and leading of, discussions
of modern work in current papers.
Besides discussions in class and
occasional mini-assignments of thought experiments or take-home
back-of-the-envelope calculations, students will complete a final project
consisting of a presentation and term paper describing their work on either: a)
original geochronologic analysis and interpretations using facilities at Yale
or nearby, or b) innovative modeling, synthesis, or reinterpretation or
previously published data. Students will present a written (2-3 page) proposal
by the end of October describing their planned project, its motivation,
significance, methods, and anticipated results.
Tentative Schedule
Note: This schedule is
highly subject to change. We will likely shift topics around and change
readings to accommodate progress and interests of the class.
|
Day
|
Lecture Topic
|
Background Reading
|
Discussion Reading
(for next meeting)
|
|
9/2
|
Nuclear systematics; decay
and growth; mass spectrometry
|
White lect. 1-4; Faure ch.
1-4; Dickin ch. 1-3
|
|
|
9/7
|
Rb/Sr and Sm/Nd
|
White lect. 4-6; Faure ch.
8; Dickin ch. 3
|
Tsuboi and Suzuki, 2003
(initial Sr)
|
|
9/9
|
Sm/Nd
|
White lect. 7; Faure ch.
12; Dickin ch. 8
|
Bowring and Housh, 1995
(early earth)
|
|
9/14
|
(U-Th)/Pb
|
White lect. 8, 9; Faure ch.
18, 19; Dickin ch. 5
|
Rasmussen and Fletcher,
2004 (zirconolite)
|
|
9/16
|
no class
|
|
|
|
9/21
|
Re/Os, Pt/Os
|
White lect. 11; Faure ch.
16; Dickin ch. 8
|
Brandon et al., 2003 (186Os;
Gorgona)
|
|
9/23
|
Meteorites
|
White lect. 23;
|
Trieloff et al., 2003 (H
chondrites)
|
|
9/28
|
Earth differentiation and
recycling
|
White lect. 16-21; Dickin
ch. 6, 7
|
Blichert-Toft et al., 1999
(Hf and Hawaii)
|
|
9/30
|
Earth differentiation and
recycling
|
White lect. 16-21; Dickin
ch. 6, 7
|
Lassiter & Hauri, 1998
(Hawaii)
|
|
10/5
|
U-series
|
White lect. 10; Dickin ch.
10-13
|
TBA
|
|
10/7
|
Subduction zones and arc
magmatism
|
White lect. 22;
|
Sigmarsson et al., 2002 (226Ra;
Chile)
|
|
10/12
|
K/Ar and 40Ar/39Ar
|
White lect. 5,6; Faure ch.
6,7; Dickin ch. 10
|
TBA
|
|
10/14
|
no class
|
|
|
|
10/19
|
40Ar/39Ar and diffusion
|
McDougall & Harrison
ch. 5,6
|
Kelley & Wartho, 2000
(kimberlite)
|
|
10/21
|
40Ar/39Ar and diffusion
|
McDougall & Harrison
ch. 5,6
|
Richter et al. (1991) (K-spar;
Tibet)
|
|
10/26
|
no class
|
|
|
|
10/28
|
(U-Th)/He
|
Farley, 2002
|
Reiners et al., 2003 (Dabie
Shan)
|
|
11/2
|
(U-Th)/He
|
Farley, 2002
|
Shuster et al., 2003 (4He/3He)
|
|
11/4
|
no class
|
|
|
|
11/9
|
GSA; no class
|
|
|
|
11/11
|
GSA; no class
|
|
|
|
11/16
|
Fission-track
|
White lect. 14; Dickin ch.
16; Faure ch. 20
|
Garver et al., Andes ZFT
|
|
11/18
|
Thermochronology of orogeny
|
Turcotte & Schubert,
ch. 4.1-4.12; Mancktelow & Grasemann, 1997
|
Reiners et al., 2003
(Cascades)
|
|
11/23
|
Fall recess
|
|
|
|
11/25
|
Fall recess
|
|
|
|
11/30
|
Detrital geochronology
|
TBA
|
Dickinson & Gehrels,
2003 (eolian SS’s)
|
|
12/2
|
Cosmogenic dating
|
White lect. 12, 13; Dickin
ch. 14
|
Wolkowinsky and Granger,
2004 (San Juan terrace dating)
|
|
RW
|
Final presentations
|
|
|
Supplementary
material for this course:
The lecture notes (which can be downloaded as pdf’s) for Bill White’s
Isotope Geochemistry course at Cornell make for excellent reading and
reference:
·
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/Geo656/656notes03.html ,
as does his on-line Geochemistry textbook:
·
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/geo455/Chapters.HTML .
I also recommend
that you buy either one of these books as a reference for use in, and use long
after, this class:
·
Radiogenic
Isotope Geology, by Alan P. Dickin, 1995, Cambridge University Press, 490 pp, ISBN
0-521-43151-4.
·
Principles of
Isotope Geology, 2nd Ed., by Gunter Faure, 1986, John Wiley & Sons, 589
pp, ISBN 0-471-86412-9.
Other hyperuseful
references:
·
Geochronology and Thermochronology by the 40Ar/39Ar
Method, 2nd Ed., by
McDougall, I., and Harrison, T.M., 1999, Oxford University Press, 269 pp.
·
Geodynamics, 2nd Ed., by Turcotte, D.L., and Schubert, G., 2002,
Cambridge University Press, 456 pp.