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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Release–Stellenbosch University takes lead in doing rock dating in Africa
Thanks to world class additions to the rock dating facility at Stellenbosch University (SU), South African geologists in academia and industry are now able to answer questions about the tectonic evolution and age of the African continent faster, easier and more cost-effectively.
That was the message at the recent unveiling of the latest addition to the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy Laboratory (ICP-MS) of the Central Analytical Facility (CAF) at Stellenbosch University. The event in the Department of Earth Sciences, which was sponsored by Thermo Scientific, was attended by geologists from Stellenbosch University and other South African institutions, as well as representatives from industry.
The new Thermo Element 2 HR-SF-ICP-MS was acquired through assistance from the SU Strategic Fund and ALE Committee. It is the only one of its kind in use for highly-precise and accurate geochronology in Africa, and one of only a handful similar ones around the world that are used to perform geochronological research in the academic sphere.
Geochronology is used to establish the absolute ages of the crystallisation of magmatic rocks such as granites, the formation of mountain belts such as the Alps, and the formation of mineral deposits such as diamond-bearing kimberlites and gold-bearing alluvial placer deposits. It is also used to fingerprint the sources of sediment that contribute to the development of sedimentary basins. Age determinations are done by quantifying the radioactive decay of isotopes of uranium and thorium to isotopes of lead.
The ICP-MS Facility is headed by associate professor Dirk Frei, who recently joined the staff of Stellenbosch University from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland where he was Head of the Surveys geochemical laboratories.
Prof Frei is very impressed by the speed by which the new equipment can scan samples, and its “incredible sensitivity” to provide very accurate measurements of the samples being investigated.
Up to 600 age determinations can be made per day, each taking less than a minute. This is done in an automated fashion, with each age determined from a drill hole only 15-20 thousandths of millimetres wide and less than 10 thousandths of a millimetre deep.
The new equipment extends the ability at SU to geochronologically date minerals such as zircon, apatite and monazite at high spatial resolution on a commercial scale.
Zircon is not only of geological importance as one of the oldest and chemically most resistant minerals found on earth, but is also used extensively in industry to produce anything from bathroom accessories and containers that can hold radio-active materials.
Zircon and other datable minerals such as apatite and monazite are very fine grained (<<1mm in diameter) and contain domains within different ages. Therefore it is important to be able to target and date small portions of individual crystals.
“The new equipment will help us to unravel geological processes, and will definitely ensure that a host of highly cited articles are published based on the data,” Prof Frei predicts.
At the recent launch function, Prof Gary Stevens, director of the Central Analytical Facility at Stellenbosch University, credited Prof Ian Buick of the SU Department of Earth Sciences and former CAF analyst Dr Chris Lana for the work they had done to get the rock dating facility at SU off the ground last year. This made it unnecessary for South African scientists to have to travel abroad, at great cost, to undertake any geochronological research.
“Now Prof Frei will take this facility to the very important next level,” Prof Stevens believes.
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