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photograph of the Nu Instruments Mass spectrometer

Ar/Ar and noble gas services at a glance

We offer our full range of analytical services to research centres and industry:

Lavas, intrusives, tephras, tuffs & silicic volcanoes

  • Whole rock and mineral separate analysis to provide the timing of lava eruption and intrusion of igneous bodies.
  • Refining stratigraphy/aiding correlation, based on analysis of separated minerals (e.g. micas and feldspars)

Clastic provenance

Detrital mineral ages as indicators of provenance, sediment routes and recycling that can be combined with U-Pb zircon and FT measurements with partner laboratories.

Diagenesis & fluid flow

  • In-situ analysis of authigenic K-feldspar overgrowths
  • Micro-encapsulation’ enables the dating of ultra-small (<30μg) illite and glauconite mineral separates

Deformation & fractured basement

  • In-situ analysis of minerals in mylonites
  • Fault gouges (illite mineral separates)
  • Pseudotachylites (friction melts)
  • Strain fringes
  • Where secondary K-feldspar occurs in fracture systems it can be dated to determine the timing of precipitation

General Information

Due to the irradiation process required for Ar/Ar dating, the timescales for completion of work are usually estimated at 6-8 months

For further details please contact Dr Alison Halton, Argon Lab Manager

+44 (0) 1908 659449 (office)

Contact us

Argon/Argon & Noble Gas Research Group
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
U.K.

Lead Academic - Dr Sarah Sherlock
Telephone: +44 (0) 1908 659559 (office),

Lab Manager - Dr Alison Halton
+44 (0) 1908 659449 (office)