Heated Topics in Thermochronology and Paths towards Resolution
Heated Topics in Thermochronology and Paths towards Resolution
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DOI：
10.3390/geosciences10090375
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发表时间：
2020-09
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
M. Fox;A. Carter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Fox;A. Carter
热时计被广泛用于跟踪挖掘，岩石向地球表面的运动，并获得对地球动力学和地貌过程的新见解。应用程序需要模型来重建岩石的冷却历史，因为它是从地壳深处的高温到较冷的浅层，最终到地球表面。热计时模型依赖于可预测的积累和在实验室测量的辐射成因子产物的温度依赖损失。然而，有许多地质上合理的情景将产生非常相似的热时计年龄。这种相似性阻碍了找到实际场景，因此要寻找一个近似模型。寻找合适的模型参数是一个潜在的不适定逆问题，需要决定如何最好地从数据中提取信息，以及如何组合数据以利用冗余信息并减少数据噪声的影响。这些决定往往会导致研究结论的差异，而这种差异导致了激烈的辩论。在这里，我们讨论了以使用各种建模方法和导致预测挖掘率差异的潜在偏差来源为中心的争论。我们还对未来的研究路径提出了一些建议，以帮助解决这些争论。
Thermochronometry is widely used to track exhumation, the motion of rock towards Earth’s surface, and to gain fresh insights into geodynamic and geomorphic processes. Applications require models to reconstruct a rock’s cooling history as it is exhumed from higher temperatures at depth within the crust to cooler shallower levels and eventually Earth’s surface. Thermochronometric models are dependent on the predictable accumulation and the temperature-dependent loss of radiogenic daughter products measured in the laboratory. However, there are many geologically reasonable scenarios that will yield very similar thermochronometric ages. This similarity hinders finding the actual scenario, so instead an approximate model is sought. Finding suitable model parameters is a potentially ill-posed inverse problem that requires making decisions about how best to extract information from the data and how to combine data to leverage redundant information and reduce the impact of data noise. Often these decisions lead to differences in conclusions of studies and such discrepancies have led to heated debates. Here, we discuss debates centred on the use of a variety of modelling approaches and potential sources of biases that lead to differences in the predicted exhumation rate. We also provide some suggestions about future research paths that will help resolve these debates.