Long-Term Reproducibility of SIMS Zircon U-Pb Geochronology

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) zircon U-Pb dating has been widely used to confine the absolute ages of the magmatic or metamorphic events and to distinguish multiple events. Here, a data set consisting of the zircon standards dating data (∼15 000 Plešovice and ∼8 000 Qinghu items) accumulated for more than 8 years using the CAMECA IMS 1280HR of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) is compiled to evaluate the long-term external reproducibility. With Plešovice zircon as the calibration standard and Qinghu zircon as an unknown sample, the analytical uncertainties for single-spot (n = 7 723) and session analyses (n = 691, with more than 7 single spot analyses in one session) are 2.6% and 0.9% (2RSD, relative standard deviation), respectively. It means that single-spot U-Pb dating for a standard-level zircon sample could vary 5.2% at 95% confidence level, while the average value (n > 7) for each session may vary 1.8%. Thus, these values should be considered as the minimum uncertainty when comparing single spot and individual session analysis results for multiple dating works on a certain geological event.