Synchrotron Microanalytical Characterization and K/Ar Dating of the GL-O-1 Glauconite Reference Material at the Single Pellet Scale and Reassessment of the Age of Visually Mature Pellets

The K/Ar chronology of glauconite pellets is a long-used method for directly dating marine sedimentary deposits. Many papers have explored the processes that form glauconite and the factors that lead to greater reliability in the ages. Although K/Ar ages of glauconite are generally in agreement with other measures of stratigraphic age, there are examples of occurrences with ages too old and examples with ages too young. This paper seeks to build on the accumulated knowledge of glauconite, using synchrotron radiation to non-destructively characterize individual pellets and then consecutively measure the argon and potassium to obtain a K/Ar age. This strategy provides the advantage of measurements on a single aliquot while avoiding recoil loss of Ar-40 in the nuclear reactor during irradiation for Ar-40/Ar-39 dating. We have used the glauconite reference material GL-O-1 to showcase several non-destructive methods for evaluating the maturity of individual pellets. In our argon measurements, we have found that the radiogenic argon concentration of large bulk samples underestimates the values for individual visually mature pellets, and we determined a K/Ar age of 101.0 & PLUSMN; 0.3 Ma (1 & sigma; SEM), M.S.W.D. 0.54 from 15 of 16 visually mature individual pellets. This age is 6% older than the reference value of 95.03 & PLUSMN; 1.11 Ma (1 & sigma;), and it is in good agreement with constraints from the U-Pb dating of volcanic minerals near the Albian-Cenomanian boundary.

Automated summary

The K/Ar chronology of glauconite pellets, a method used to directly date marine sedimentary deposits, is improved by using synchrotron radiation to characterize individual pellets and measure the argon and potassium. The results show that the radiogenic argon concentration underestimates the values for individual visually mature pellets, and the determined K/Ar age is 6% older than the reference value and in agreement with constraints from U-Pb dating.