RUI: Field-testing the Multiple Diffusion Domain 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar Thermochronometer at Tilted Normal Fault Blocks in the U.S. Basin and Range

地球内部的许多构造过程都会对周围的岩石产生热效应。因此，热年代学可以重建样品的热历史，可以提供对许多地质过程的时间，速率和空间模式的独特见解。热年代学的应用包括研究景观演化、造山运动、大陆伸展和裂谷作用以及沉积盆地的热历史，这些对石油勘探都很重要。因此，热年代学是研究地球科学中各种过程的重要工具。然而，大多数热年代学系统仅提供通过单个闭合温度的冷却时间，因此仅提供沿沿着温度/时间路径的点约束，这可能导致不准确的解释。一个理想的热年代学系统将在很大的温度范围内保持样品的连续热历史。40 Ar/39 Ar钾长石系统已被解释为记录样品从~350 °C到150°C的连续热历史，因此使其成为潜在的强大热年代学工具。然而，一些研究质疑该系统是否记录了地质意义上的热历史。本研究的目的是现场测试的热历史来自于40 Ar/39 Ar钾长石数据在一个良好的约束地质context，以评估的地质意义，通过这种approach.The研究将进行在两个断块已倾斜和大的正断层挖出;黄金巴特块，NV和格雷贝克断块，AZ的热历史。这些区块暴露出从近地表条件到10公里深度的地壳横截面。根据先前的研究，这些块体具有已知的伸展前热结构，以及随着伸展开始从缓慢冷却到快速冷却的独特热历史。将从每个断块的广泛的古深度采集样品，并对每个样品进行40 Ar/39 Ar钾长石数据的多扩散域（MDD）建模。将根据先前的热年代学数据、已知的热结构和每个区块的热/构造历史来评价由此产生的热历史。如果MDD推导的热历史匹配的形式和绝对温度方面的预期行为，这项工作将提供重要的案例研究，记录40 Ar/39 Ar钾长石热历史的地质意义和他们的校准，以其他热年代计。将对结果偏离预期行为的样品进行评价，以评估为什么会获得有问题的结果（有问题的显微组织、成分、粒度、扩散行为等）。这些结果将用于评估目前用于评估MDD热历史有效性的方法，例如年龄谱和R/R 0图之间的相关性。这些结果也可以提供洞察样品特性，产生最可靠的热历史，从而为未来的研究提供指导。总的来说，这些结果将提供新的见解MDD 40 Ar/39 Ar钾长石热历史的地质有效性，为什么一些样品产生有问题的结果，以及目前用于识别不准确的结果的方法。

Many tectonic processes within the Earth impart thermal effects on surrounding rocks. As a result, thermochronology, which allows the thermal history of a sample to be reconstructed, can provide unique insights into the timing, rates, and spatial patterns of many geologic processes. Applications of thermochronology include investigating landscape evolution, mountain building, continental extension and rifting, and the thermal histories of sedimentary basins, which are important to petroleum exploration. As such, thermochronology is an essential tool to investigate a wide variety of processes within the Earth Sciences. However, most thermochronologic systems only provide the time of cooling through a single closure temperature and thus only provide a point constraint along a temperature/time path, which can result in inaccurate interpretations. An ideal thermochronologic system would instead retain the continuous thermal history of a sample through a large range of temperatures. The 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar system has been interpreted to record the continuous thermal history of a sample from ~350 to 150°C, thus making it a potentially powerful thermochronologic tool. However, a number of studies have questioned whether this system records geologically meaningful thermal histories. The goal of this study is to field test the thermal histories derived from 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar data in a well constrained geologic context in order to evaluate the geologic significance of the thermal histories derived by this approach.The study will be conducted at two fault blocks that have been tilted and exhumed by large normal faults; the Gold Butte block, NV and the Grayback fault block, AZ. These blocks expose crustal cross sections that range from near surface conditions to 10 km depth. These blocks have a known pre-extensional thermal structure based on prior studies as well as a distinct thermal history that evolved from slow to rapid cooling as extension began. Samples will be collected from a wide range of paleo-depths at each fault block and multiple diffusion domain (MDD) modeling of 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar data will be conducted on each sample. The resultant thermal histories will be evaluated against the prior thermochronologic data, the known thermal structure and thermal/tectonic history of each block. If MDD derived thermal histories match the expected behavior with regard to both the form and absolute temperatures, this work will provide important case studies that document the geologic significance of 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar thermal histories and their calibration to other thermochronometers. Samples whose results depart from the expected behavior will be evaluated to assess why problematic results were obtained (problematic microtextures, compositions, grain sizes, diffusion behavior, etc). These results will be used to evaluate approaches currently used to assess the validity of MDD thermal histories, such as the correlation between the age spectrum and the R/R0 plot. These results may also provide insight into sample characteristics that yield the most reliable thermal histories, thus providing a guide for future studies. As a whole, these results will provide new insight into the geologic validity of MDD 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar thermal histories, why some samples yield problematic results, and the methods currently used to identify inaccurate results.