New Publication: Skipton et. al. 2018 Chemical Geology

Skipton, D.R, Warren, C.J. and Hanke, F. 2018. Chemical Geology. Numerical modeling of P-T, time and grain-size controls on Ar diffusion in biotite: An aide to interpreting ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages. Vol 496, pp.14-24.

A recently published paper Co-Authored by Clare Warren looked at numerical modeling of Ar diffusion in biotite and how this can aid the interpretation of Ar/Ar ages. Biotite is one of the most extensively used minerals for Ar/Ar dating, particularly in metamorphic rocks but in such rocks there are several processes that can perturb the Ar systematics and violate assumptions that are made in the method. A series of numerical diffusion models are preesnted in this paper showing how much radiogenic argon could be theoretically reatined from different grain sizes residing for various time periods in a range of PT conditions. 

These models can help to evaluate data and along with the petrogenetic history of the same, numerical diffusion modelling is a powerful tool for Ar/Ar data interpretation.