Fission Track

Fission Track (FT) thermochronology is a method for reconstructing the time-temperature histories of exhumed upper crustal rocks.
FT analysis is based on damage (tracks) caused by the spontaneous fission of 238U. This element is naturally concentrated in some minerals (apatite and zircon), which are the main targets of the FT method.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our laboratory is composed of two rooms :

• A sample preparation room,
• A sample preparation room.
  It is equipped for picking, mounting (resin pad or Teflon®), polishing and etching. Because we use the external detector method, all samples are irradiated at the nuclear reactor FRM II (Garching, Germany). After irradiation, the samples are mounted on glass slides for FT analysis under an optical microscope (counting, track lengths and Dpar measurements).

The laboratory is also equipped of a binocular microscope dedicated to sample preparation for (U-Th)/He analysis in collaboration with Orsay (Univ. Paris Sud), Nancy (CRPG) or other laboratories.

Tools	Description
An automatic polisher (PRESI Mecatech 334)	Grain polishing
2 binoculars	Grain picking and mounting
2 optical microscopes	Polishing and etching control
2 microscopes Olympus with automatic stages XY, FTStage 4.04 et a camera Olympus for fission track analysis	Counting, tracks lengths and Dpar measurements
1 microscope Olympus SZX16 (with optional camera), for samples preparation for (U-Th)/He analysis	Picking, measures and preparation of apatite and zircon grains

– Contact
Mélanie Balvay
Mail : Melanie.Balvay univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
Phone : +33 (0)4 76 63 59 64