Review

U–Pb geochronology: its development and importance in

Canada
Donald W. Davis
Earth Sciences Department, University of Toronto, 22 Ursula Franklin St, Toronto, ON M5S 3C6, Canada

Corresponding author: Donald W. Davis (email: dond@es.utoronto.ca)

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Abstract
This article presents a history of the development of U–Pb geochronology with emphasis on the role of Canadian researchers
and some of its applications to Canadian geology. Modern U–Pb dating is the result of work by many individuals over the past
60 years, but the most important was Tom Krogh, who established methods that allowed determination of precise ages (<0.1%
errors) on zircon using isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry. This was followed by the introduction of new
analytical approaches by others, notably secondary ion mass spectrometry and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry that allow intracrystal domains to be dated. U–Pb geochronology is now an indispensable tool for understanding
the Earth. In collaboration with field mapping, it has vastly improved our understanding of the geological history of Canada
as well as important geological events such as mass extinctions, secular changes in geological processes, and the birth of the
solar system.
For personal use only.

Key words: U–Pb, geochronology, zircon, history, Canadian geoscience

Introduction Pb system in zircon. Canadian geoscientists, despite compris-

During public tours of the Jack Satterly Geochronology Lab-
oratory (JSGL), which were frequent when it was at the Royal
Ontario Museum (ROM), a question often posed was “Why
would anyone want to date a rock?” This article tries to pro-
vide an answer, emphasizing U–Pb dating, and to describe its
importance to geoscience in Canada.
The Earth is a breathtakingly complex dynamic system
driven by radioactive heating where oceanic crust continu-
ously renews itself. Continents, being too light to sink into
the mantle like old ocean crust, are constantly in motion car-
rying a record of the geologic past. This record is preserved in
the rocks that surround us, which contain a history of conti-
nental fragmentation and amalgamation and of an environ-
ment affected by massive secular changes both gradual and
catastrophic. Interpreting evidence from rocks is difficult and
constructing a planetary history almost impossible without
accurate and precise ages. A worldwide stratigraphic frame-
work for sediments was established starting in the 19th cen-
tury based on the study of fossils, but this did not provide
absolute ages and left the earlier 85% of geologic time, the
Precambrian, difficult to understand beyond a local scale.
Geochronology is the determination of absolute ages of
rocks and minerals by measurement of accumulated daugh-
ter isotopes from long-lived radioactive decay systems. Over
the past 60 years, the development and application of meth-
ods for precise geochronology has been one of the most im-
portant contributions to geology. This is in great part due to
the existence of a uniquely powerful geochronometer: the U–
ing a small proportion of the global population, have played
a predominant role. In part, this may be because the country
encompasses a disproportionate share of Precambrian crust
but it is also due in large measure to the work of one indi-
vidual, Tom Krogh, in developing the U–Pb method. Previous
accounts of the historical development of U–Pb geochronol-
ogy have been written by Davis et al. (2003) and of the con-
tributions of Tom Krogh by Kamo et al. (2011). The reader is
referred to these for additional references.
Efforts to measure the age of the Earth began in earnest
with evolutionary theory as proposed by Darwin and inde-
pendently by Wallace in the 19th century. This theory argues
that the development of life is driven by adaptations of in-
dividual organisms to the environment through natural se-
lection where random mutations that favour survival in the
environment are passed on to future generations. As envi-
ronments change, so will the organisms that occupy them
eventually resulting in new species. As a result of natural se-
lection, the human species came to possess uniquely large
brains. This was probably less because a large brain improves
survival rates by allowing the use of tools and logical thinking
but because it allows the use of language, and complex com-
munication through language allows highly effective group
activity. Whereas humans are not very good at surviving as
individuals, they are extremely good at surviving in a group
probably because of language. The use of language also al-
lows individuals to tell each other stories that in time coa-
lesce into a shared world view that includes an account of the

388 Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009

 Canadian Science Publishing

past: an existential mythology that defines the origin and pur- Fig. 1. (A) Fresh zircon from an Archean quartz diorite. (B)
pose of everyone in the group. In 1650, James Usscher, Bishop Monazite from an Archean peraluminous granite.
of Armagh, published a chronology of the Earth based on the
bible, which led him to conclude that the world had been cre-
ated on 23 October 4004 BC. Darwin, who was a clergyman as
well as a geologist, realized that evolution required a much
longer time period than this, probably hundreds of millions
of years. Nineteenth century physics, as interpreted by Lord
Kelvin, set the age of the Earth as no older than a few million
years based on the time to cool from a molten state to its
current crustal heat flow. Following the discovery of radioac-
tivity near the turn of the century, it was recognized that this
could provide enough energy to keep the crust warm indefi-
nitely. Radioactivity also provided the means to measure time
using radiogenic isotopes that accumulate at a predictable
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rate. Precisely measured ages have since transformed the ge-

ologic past from myth into history.
The widespread acceptance of plate tectonic theory only
60 years ago provided a way to explain the formation of con-
tinents and oceans at least over the past few hundred mil-
lion years. Critical evidence for this, sea floor spreading, was
first proposed by Laurence Morley at the Geological Survey
of Canada (GSC) but his manuscript to Nature was rejected as
outlandish. A year later in 1973, a similar manuscript from
Cambridge scientists was published, so it is often called the
Vine–Matthews hypothesis. A Canadian scientist, John Tuzo
For personal use only.

Wilson, subsequently led in providing viable explanations for

plate tectonic processes. The movement of continents can be
reconstructed backwards for a few hundred million years to
when the present oceanic plates first formed. The only re-
maining evidence for the existence of earlier oceans is in
displaced and deformed rocks that resulted from collisions
between crustal fragments. Geochronology is essential to re-
construct their history.
What is geochronology?
There are a number of long-lived radioactive decay systems
that can be used as geochronometers. The precision of ages
from most of them is limited by the fact that there are few
or no minerals that contain reasonable concentrations of the
parent element but exclude the daughter element, which oth-
erwise must be subtracted from the radiogenic component.
Some, particularly 87 Rb–87 Sr, were widely used before the full
development of zircon dating (Baadsgaard et al. 1964). Ra-
dioactive systems based in immobile elements, even if they
can rarely be used to determine precise ages, are very useful
for tracing the long-term development of continental crust.
For example, the use of Nd isotopic compositions, which vary
slowly due to decay of 147 Sm to 143 Nd, as a method of map-
ping terranes with distinct ages and derivation was applied
by Alan Dickin at McMaster University to complex regions
like the Grenville province.
Both K–Ar and U–Pb can be used for routine precise
geochronology because common minerals exist where their
daughter elements are almost entirely radiogenic. Ar dating
was advanced in Canada most notably by Derek York and col-
leagues at the University of Toronto, who refined laser extrac-
tion of Ar. Ar cannot be used to date igneous formation of an-
cient metamorphosed rocks because it is a gas that is released
by heating, but it can be used to date metamorphism.
The U–Pb system is based on the decay of 238 U and 235 U
isotopes to 206 Pb and 207 Pb isotopes, respectively. Most rocks
contain trace amounts of both U and Pb when they form,
so the measured Pb will have both a radiogenic and an ini-
tial component. Both elements are also relatively mobile in
rocks, so it is necessary to focus on chemically inert minerals
with very high U/Pb ratios such as zircon and monazite (Fig.
1). Zircon is by far the most widespread, occurring in most
felsic igneous rocks, and has proved to be the most useful.
It could be argued that geochronology as a science began in
Canada with work on the U decay system by Rutherford and
Soddy at McGill University in the early 1900s, work for which
Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. Rutherford
may have been the first to recognize that decay of radioactive
isotopes could be applied to dating rocks. Over the following
50 years, methods were slowly developed to apply U–Pb de-
cay to geochronology, from chemical determination of U and
Pb in radioactive minerals by Holmes to the development of
magnetic mass spectrometry by Nier in the late 1930s, which
allowed precise measurement of isotope ratios. This culmi-
nated in the Ph.D. work of George Tilton at the University of
Chicago, who was the first to date zircon to reasonable preci-
sion (Tilton et al. 1955). Although this work was done outside

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 Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 2. Wetherill concordia plot showing the geometrical in-
terpretation of U–Pb and Pb–Pb ages.
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Canada, his samples came from the Precambrian Grenville
province of Ontario.
To determine an age, it is necessary to measure ratios of the
radiogenic isotopes over the parent isotopes and then apply
the decay equation. This requires knowledge of decay rates,
For personal use only.
which were determined in the laboratory for U by measuring
rates of alpha particle emission. U–Pb has the singular advan-
tage of being a double-decay system, meaning that two ages
can be calculated based on accumulation of 206 Pb and 207 Pb.
Obviously, if the ages do not agree, something must be wrong
and this was usually the case particularly for very old zircon
like that analyzed by Tilton. An effective method for present-
ing U–Pb results is to plot the ratios of daughter over par-
ent isotopes against each other, 206 Pb/238 U versus 207 Pb/235 U
(Wetherill plot). Samples that give the same ages for both
decay systems are plotted on a parametric curve called con-
cordia on which ages can be marked off (Fig. 2). Even if the
mineral has been disturbed at a later time, the U–Pb system
allows both primary and disturbance ages to be determined.
Early development of zircon dating
(1960–1982)
The first instruments that could separate and measure ra-
tios of isotopes were thermal ionization mass spectrometers
(TIMS) in which sample solutions are dried onto a metal fila-
ment that is then heated in a vacuum so that the sample ele-
ment evaporates. Some of the element spontaneously ionizes
and the ions are accelerated to a fixed energy by an electric
field then passed through a magnetic field where they are
separated according to mass and measured by one or more
detectors. The efficiency of thermal ionization is a complex
function of temperature and other factors, so it is necessary
to mix the sample with a known amount of a standard that
contains the same element as the sample but has a differ-
ent isotopic composition so that standard and sample can
be distinguished. This mixing of samples and isotopically dis-
390
Fig. 3. Partly altered Archean zircon grains. The altered parts
are discoloured and/or cloudy. Crystalline disorder in the un-
altered zircon can be distinguished by its low index of refrac-
tion compared with fresh zircon (Fig. 1A).
tinct standard is known as isotope dilution (ID) and their mea-
surement as ID-TIMS. Highly enriched 235 U became available
through the development of nuclear weapons and could be
used as an isotopic standard. It was also easy to prepare so-
lutions of almost pure 208 Pb from high thorium minerals. If
a mixture of 208 Pb and 235 U, known as a spike, is prepared
with a precisely known ratio of the two isotopes, mixing the
spike with the sample solution and measuring the Pb and U
isotopic ratios in the mixture yield enough information to de-
termine the ratios of Pb and U isotopes in the sample even if
the absolute concentrations or the proportion of sample and
spike solutions are poorly known.
Tilton used the most advanced methods at the time to date
zircon. The sample was fused in borax so it could be dissolved
and half the solution mixed with a 235 U–208 Pb spike, the un-
spiked half being necessary to determine the amount of 208 Pb
in the sample so it could be subtracted. U and Pb were then
chemically separated and the isotope ratios measured on a
TIMS mass spectrometer. Pb was loaded as a sulfide, which
produces a low ionization efficiency. Therefore, it was nec-
essary to extract Pb and U from milligrams of zircon, which
represents at least hundreds of grains.
Zircon U–Pb data usually fell below the concordia curve and
tended to scatter around a line suggesting a range of ages of
Pb loss. Many samples from the Superior province gave up-
per intercept ages of about 2.7 Ga and average lower inter-
cept ages of around 0.5 Ga. More discordant fractions usu-
ally consisted of cracked and discoloured zircon, which was
slightly paramagnetic (Fig. 3). Therefore, fractions with vari-
able discordance could be isolated magnetically but precision
and accuracy were limited due to the Pb loss problem. This
continued to be the approach to zircon dating for a couple of
decades before being transformed by Tom Krogh, a Canadian
working at the Carnegie Institution in Washington (CIW) in
the early 1970s.
The original method of analyzing zircon was unacceptably
laborious for the young Krogh at CIW. This spurred him to
look for an improved method of zircon dissolution, which
he found using hydrofluoric acid (HF) under high pressure
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and temperature in Teflon capsules sealed in steel jackets that
could be heated to above 200 ◦ C. After conversion to a chlo-
ride solution, Pb and U could be separated from Zr and from
each other in anion exchange columns, which was faster and
easier than the liquid–liquid extraction procedure that was
previously used (Krogh 1973). This method also added much
less laboratory Pb contamination (known as blank) to the
sample, allowing a smaller number of zircon grains to be an-
alyzed.
A second improvement made by Krogh was synthesis of a
new spike based on 205 Pb. 205 Pb has a half-life of about 15 Ma
so none occurs in nature and it will not be present in sample
Pb, unlike the previous 208 Pb spike. Krogh conceived of and
carried out the synthesis of 205 Pb by proton bombardment
of a Pb target in a cyclotron where 206 Pb is transformed to
205
Bi, which decays to 205 Pb with a 2-week half-life. Because
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Bi is chemically different from Pb, all Pb can be stripped from
the Bi by column separation in a hot cell and the Bi left to
decay to 205 Pb (Krogh and Davis 1975a). The use of a mixed
235
U–205 Pb spike greatly simplified the analytical procedure,
allowing still smaller amounts of zircon to be dated.
U–Pb geochronology in Canada during this period was car-
ried out at the GSC by Bob Wanless and at the University
of Alberta by Bud Baadsgaard and George Cumming. Earlier
work on using Pb isotopes to understand crustal evolution
was carried out at the University of British Columbia (UBC) by
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Don Russel, Ernie Kanasawich, Tad Ulrych, Ron Farquhar, and
Richard Armstrong. In 1975, Krogh set up the JSGL, named for
a respected Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) geologist, at the
ROM with joint funding from the OGS and ROM. Paul Nunes
was hired to date zircon in collaboration with field geologists.
Don Davis began in 1978 with an OGS-funded project on the
western Wabigoon greenstone belt and Fernando Corfu be-
came the OGS geochronologist in 1982.
At CIW, Krogh noted that zircon discordance is related
to alteration of the crystals, which only affects parts of zir-
con whose structure has been strongly disrupted by alpha
recoil of daughter isotopes during radioactive decay, a pro-
cess known as metamictization (Krogh and Davis 1974). 238 U
and 235 U decay through two independent chains of rela-
tively short-lived radionuclides. There are eight alpha parti-
cles emitted in the 238 U decay series and seven in the 235 U
series and emission of each alpha particle imparts enough
energy to the daughter isotope to break its crystal bonds and
destroy the crystal structure for a small region around the
parent atom. The cumulative effect of this process over bil-
lions of years is to completely disrupt the crystalline order if
the U concentration is high enough that the disordered re-
gions intersect. The chemical inertness of zircon is largely a
result of its crystal structure so if this is destroyed, the zircon
can react with residual water in the rock becoming chemi-
cally altered (Fig. 5). Because Pb does not naturally fit into
the zircon, alteration tends to result in Pb loss. Zircon is of-
ten composed of relatively high- and low-U growth zones that
may be on the order of microns in thickness and that are re-
peated as oscillatory zoning. In time, high-U zones expand as
they accumulate radiation damage and crack adjacent low U
zones. The cracks can provide an avenue for water to enter
the crystal and alter the adjacent high-U zones.
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Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 4. Polished zircon etched by HF vapour showing alter-
ation front. The unaltered part of the zircon preserves the
age information.
Today, these structures are studied with the scanning elec-
tron microscope to image surfaces of polished crystals us-
ing backscattered electron and cathodoluminescence detec-
tors. Lacking these methods at CIW, Krogh and Davis (1975b)
exposed polished zircon crystals to HF vapour and pho-
tographed the surface under an optical microscope. While
undamaged zircon requires concentrated HF at high pres-
sure to dissolve, metamict zircon is attacked and rapidly dis-
coloured in seconds even by weak HF vapour (Fig. 4). This
revealed that most zircon represents a geochronologically bi-
modal system where part of the crystal is altered and part
is not, the latter preserving a record of the age even after
metamictization. The challenge was to analyze only the un-
altered parts of crystals.
ID-TIMS requires analyzing whole crystals or fragments
and it was observed that even uncracked fresh-looking
Archean crystals when analyzed show a small degree of dis-
cordance. It seemed logical that the outer layer of most zircon
crystals, because it was the last to crystallize, would contain
higher U concentrations and because it is exposed, would be
commonly altered. At the ROM lab, Krogh developed an in-
genious method of removing the outer layers from crystals
by spinning them inside a steel chamber with compressed
air (Krogh 1982a). Adding some pyrite provided a polishing
agent that resulted in smooth abraded surfaces making it
easy to see inside the grains. This air abrasion technique effec-
tively eliminated discordance if internally unaltered crack-
free grains could be selected (Fig. 5). Because altered zircon
is paramagnetic, Krogh also worked on methods of separat-
ing purely diamagnetic (unaltered) zircon by using a mag-
netic pin under the microscope (Krogh 1982b) but this did
not prove to be as useful as abrading grains to remove the
natural surfaces.
Krogh and colleagues continued to refine the analytical
procedure. Cameron et al. (1969) had earlier discovered that
loading Pb with silica gel greatly enhanced ionization on the
filament making the mass spectrometry much more sensi-
tive. The main limitation to reducing sample size was labo-
ratory blank. This was always low (<1 pg) for U but was usu-
ally tens of picograms or more for Pb due to its ubiquity in
391
 Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 5. Results on air abraded detrital zircon from an Archean
metasedimentary rock in the western Wabigoon greenstone
belt, Superior province, Ontario. Data from Davis et al. 1989.
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the environment. Krogh reduced the size of Teflon dissolu-
tion capsules and columns and, most importantly, found that
introducing a high-pressure HCl wash cycle into the bomb
cleaning procedure was more effective than HF in removing
Pb from the Teflon. This allowed the blank to be reduced to
a few picograms of Pb in the early 1980s. The blank contin-
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ued to decrease over the years, now down to <0.5 pg, despite
using the same procedures. One probable reason is that the
environmental load of Pb has been reduced following its elim-
ination as a health hazard from gasoline, paint, and other
materials. This was a result of the work of Clair Patterson, a
fellow student of Tilton at the University of Chicago. Patter-
son publicized the health hazards of Pb contamination and
traced its sources using isotopes. He was also the first to ob-
tain a reasonably precise and accurate age for the solar sys-
tem (Patterson 1956).
Another important advance was the development of sta-
tistical methods for interpreting isotopic data expressed in
two-dimensional plots like the concordia diagram. This was
pioneered by York at University of Toronto and Cumming
at University of Alberta with Yorkfit software becoming the
standard algorithm. Ken Ludwig at the United States Geologi-
cal Survey (USGS) and later the Berkeley Geochronology Cen-
tre wrote a software package, Isoplot, based on Yorkfit that
became the standard tool for U–Pb geochronologists. Davis
proposed an alternative approach based on Bayesian statis-
tics but this only became important for later work involving
calcite dating (Davis and Rochin-Banaga 2021).
Establishment of new U–Pb labs by
Canadian trained scientists
Tom Krogh often expressed his vision for the JSGL lab as a
“Canadian Carnegie” where researchers were free to conduct
their own research unencumbered. This was enormously suc-
cessful because many of these researchers left to create their
own geochronology labs in Canada and elsewhere based on
what they learned. Examples include Greg Dunning who es-
392
tablished a lab at Memorial University and Nuno Machado
who continued his work at the University of Quebec at Mon-
treal (UQAM). Larry Heaman upgraded the lab at the Uni-
versity of Alberta and carried out many important projects
including the discovery at that time of the oldest known ter-
rane in the Superior province with Christian Bohm (Bohm
et al. 2003). Desmond Moser set up an imaging lab at West-
ern but continued to do U–Pb dating using outside facilities.
Yuri Amelin moved to the GSC and then to the Australian
Research School of Earth Sciences to continue work on me-
teorites. Other JSGL researchers who left to run labs out-
side Canada include Bob Tucker (USA), Urs Schärer (France),
Urs Schaltegger (Switzerland), and Fernando Corfu (Norway).
Each of these labs has trained people who in turn have set up
their own facilities. In 2003, the JSGL moved from the ROM
to the University of Toronto, where Mike Hamilton became
director followed by Sandra Kamo.
The geochronology lab at the GSC was upgraded during
the mid-1980s by Otto van Breeman, Randy Parrish, Chris
Roddick, Jim Mortensen, and others who set about applying
the new methods to Canadian rocks. Many field geologists
developed close associations with geochronologists in this
and other labs to study broad geological problems as well as
to assist in mapping. Using the TRIUMF accelerator facilities
at the UBC, Parrish and Krogh (1987) produced a new batch
of 205 Pb spike and aliquots of this spike were distributed to
many other labs around the world. Randy Parrish later left
to become director of the isotope lab of the British Geolog-
ical Survey. Jim Mortensen joined the faculty at UBC and
helped establish a modern U–Pb dating lab, which is now part
of the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research
under Dominique Weis. Clement Gariépy was trained at the
Université de Paris by Claude Allègre where he did some of
the earliest dating of single zircon grains in metasedimen-
tary rocks of the Superior province (Gariépy et al. 1984). He
subsequently set up the GEOTOP isotope lab at the UQAM
and carried out some of the most innovative isotopic work
in the country. Other U–Pb geochronologists who developed
U–Pb geochronology at the UQAM include Jean David and
Ross Stevensen. More recent geochronology labs employing
laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrome-
try (LA-ICPMS) include Queen’s University (Chris Spencer and
others), the University of New Brunswick (Chris MacFarlane),
Laurentian University (Jeff Marsh), and the University of Wa-
terloo (Chris Yakymchuk).
Technical advances in U–Pb dating after
1982
Zircon dating by ion microprobe and the oldest
rocks
An alternative instrumental approach to dating zircon
was introduced by Compston et al. (1982). This is the sensi-
tive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP), based on sec-
ondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Although the develop-
ment work was done at the Australian National University,
a key person responsible for designing the instrument was
a Canadian, Steve Clement, originally from the University of
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Fig. 6. Analytical pit in a polished zircon crystal after U–Pb
measurement by SHRIMP.
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Alberta. The method involves directing a beam of O ions onto
a polished zircon surface, sputtering a small amount of zir-
con and ionizing the U and Pb atoms (Fig. 6). The ions are
separated in a sector mass spectrometer, which is quite large
because the mass resolution has to be high enough to sepa-
rate the U and Pb isotopes from ionized molecular species of
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lighter atoms. The advantage is that an age can be measured
from a 20 μm spot on zircon in about 20 min, so individual
crystal domains can be rapidly dated in situ without having
to go through the laborious processes of sample dissolution
and chemistry, which take days. Because the ion beams are
small, precision is an order of magnitude lower than with
ID-TIMS but higher precision can be obtained by averaging
results from multiple spots. The instrument was steadily im-
proved over the following decade and a SHRIMP II was in-
stalled at the GSC geochronology labs in 1995 under the di-
rection of Richard Stern and later Bill Davis. This instrument
continues to provide age data as do many similar instruments
throughout the world. A Cameca IMS-1280, a later ion probe
instrument designed to be more versatile than SHRIMP, was
installed in 2008 at the University of Alberta.
One of the key advantages of in situ zircon dating is the
ability to date zircon cores and overgrowths separately (Fig.
7). If a rock containing zircon undergoes a remelting event,
much of the original zircon will survive in the magma and
new zircon will grow around it as the magma cools and crys-
tallizes. Images of a polished section of the zircon will reveal
a core and overgrowth (Corfu et al. 2003). If remelting and
cooling occur over a short enough period, the zircon cores
will have retained their radiogenic Pb and dating them re-
veals the age of the protolith, while dating the overgrowth re-
veals the age of the remelting event. Many of the oldest rocks,
as well as those involved in more recent orogenies such as
the Grenville, are complex migmatitic gneisses that appear
to have undergone multiple events involving partial fusion
and deformation. The ability to date separate zircon domains
is therefore a powerful tool for investigating the complex his-
tory of such rocks. Sam Bowring used an ion microprobe to
measure a 4000 Ma age for the oldest zircon domains in the
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Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 7. Mechanically separated cores and overgrowth zircon.
These phases are much more easily analyzed in polished sec-
tion.
Acasta gneiss in the Northwest Territories, which remains the
oldest age ever directly determined on a rock (Bowring and
Williams 1999). Much older rocks are suggested to have ex-
isted in northern Quebec based on the measurement of 142 Nd
anomalies by O’Neill et al. (2008) from McGill University us-
ing a multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spec-
trometer (MC-ICPMS) at Carnegie. 142 Nd is the daughter
isotope of 146 Sm, which in now extinct because of its short
half-life but which existed at the beginning of the solar sys-
tem, along with many other radioactive isotopes that were
produced in supernovas whose dust coalesced to form the sun
and planetary system. We know they existed because of mea-
sured excesses of daughter isotopes associated with the ra-
dioactive element and preserved in meteorites. Evidence for
the presence of live 146 Sm means that the minerals contain-
ing the anomaly must have formed before 4.4 Ga but they
could have a detrital origin.
Detrital zircon as old as 4370 ± 10 Ma has been dated from
the Jack Hills sandstone in western Australia (Valley et al.
2014). Although this sandstone was deposited much later in
the Proterozoic, it contains detritus from some of the earli-
est rocks. Hadean age zircon forms a small proportion of the
total population, so having a method that can provide rapid
analysis like the ion microprobe was essential. A related ad-
vance in instrumentation used in this work is atom probe
tomography, which can evaporate atoms from a submicron-
scale milled crystal, measure their masses, and reconstruct
their positions in the crystal.
Ion probe facilities are relatively uncommon because of
their expense but have proved invaluable for dating phases of
zircon with complex histories. Moser et al. (2008) at Western
University used the ion probe to document in detail episodes
of zircon growth in the exposed deep crustal Kapuskasing sec-
tion. He also dated ca. 200 Ma old volcanism on Mars from zir-
con in a Martian meteorite where shock-induced transition
to baddeleyite phases also gave a recent age for the impact
(Moser et al. 2013).
393
 Canadian Science Publishing
Zircon dating by LA-ICPMS
The most important new analytical development for iso-
tope geochemistry and geochronology over the past two
decades has been ICPMS. TIMS is only an effective analytical
approach for elements that can be easily ionized and many
important elements are not. An ICPMS source is an Ar plasma
maintained by electrical induction so a portion of the Ar is
ionized. Because an Ar ion has an ionization potential higher
than most other elements, it will take an electron from them
during collision, effectively producing almost 100% ioniza-
tion of analyte atoms. The plasma is maintained at atmo-
sphere so the ions must be extracted into a high vacuum
where they can be mass analyzed, which greatly reduces the
detection efficiency. Plasmas also produce unstable beams,
so ratios must be measured using either a multicollector sys-
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tem or a very rapid switching system like a quadrupole mass
spectrometer. Steady improvements in design have greatly
increased the sensitivity. The sample can be introduced as a
fine particulate from laser ablation (LA). As with the ion mi-
croprobe, this allows in situ analysis of zircon at the 10 μm
scale.
Fryer, Jackson, and Longerich (1993) of Memorial Univer-
sity were the first in Canada to exploit this technology for
dating zircon using an LA-ICPMS quadrupole instrument, and
Memorial University subsequently played a leading role in
the application of the method under Simon Jackson and Paul
For personal use only.
Sylvester. Simon Jackson has been particularly important as
an innovator and later set up the LA-ICPMS dating lab at the
GSC. Clement Garièpy at the UQAM was the first in Canada
to acquire a multicollector ICPMS, which was applied to zir-
con dating by Machado and Simonetti (2001). The subsequent
development of reliable quadrupole mass analyzers, which
are much cheaper, has led to a great expansion of use world-
wide and the establishment of several new dating facilities in
Canada, such as the University of New Brunswick (MacFarlane
and Luo 2012), Queen’s University, and Laurentian University.
The quadrupole sequentially measures a chosen set of
masses for periods of a few tens of milliseconds within the
measurement cycle. Because peak shapes are not flat, pre-
cision is limited to about ±1% but analyses take only a few
tens of seconds so, as with the ion microprobe, many analy-
ses can be performed and averaged to improve precision. The
ion microprobe is still inherently more accurate for dating
zircon and continues to serve an important role but the low
cost and versatility of LA-ICPMS facilities have made them the
most common for U–Pb dating.
Advances in TIMS
Improved instrumentation
Early mass spectrometers were constructed by the labs that
used them, which were often in physics departments. The
Micromass 30 was one of the first commercially manufac-
tured instruments in the late 1970s. Since that time, most
labs use commercial instruments and are in Earth Science de-
partments. Older instruments had a single collector, so it was
necessary to jump between peaks and baselines to measure
isotopic ratios. A major advance in TIMS was the introduc-
394
tion of multicollector instruments in the early 1980s. Hav-
ing multiple collectors with adjustable positions meant that
multiple masses can be simultaneously measured. This is not
only more time efficient, it also means that the beam does
not have to emit steadily since it is not necessary to time-
interpolate signals. This improved precision by more than an
order of magnitude and allowed other isotopic systems such
as 147 Sm–143 Nd, which required precision better than 1 in 104
to be exploited. Keith Bell and John Blenkinsop at Carlton
University were the first in Canada to acquire such an instru-
ment.
Pb evaporation
For old Precambrian zircon, the ratio of the radiogenic Pb
isotopes, 207 Pb/206 Pb, gives a more accurate and precise age
than 206 Pb/238 U ratios provided any disturbance was recent.
This allows the simplest and most elegant approach to U–Pb
zircon dating, which is thermal extraction and measurement
of Pb from zircon (TE-TIMS). The Kober method (Kober 1987)
was the first practical application where a zircon grain is af-
fixed to a side filament in a TIMS instrument and gradually
heated. Zircon is stable up to about 1500 ◦ C in vacuum when
it gradually decomposes to ZrO2 and SiO2 . SiO2 evaporates
along with Pb and both can be condensed on a centre fila-
ment exposed to the sample. Because SiO2 is an ionization
activator, heating the centre filament allows the 207 Pb/206 Pb
ratio of the evaporated Pb to be measured, which gives an
age. Pb in altered zircon evaporates at a much lower tempera-
ture and can be distinguished because its age is younger than
Pb in the unaltered zircon. The centre filament can then be
cleaned by heating to very high temperature. By repeating
this cycle at successively higher side filament temperatures,
the apparent age of the evaporated Pb can be monitored until
it reaches a plateau, which should be the age of the sample,
or until the Pb is exhausted. Although signals are relatively
small and applications are limited to Precambrian rocks, this
approach avoids the necessity of laborious dissolution and
chemical extraction in a clean lab, as well as the use of a $3 M
ion microprobe. Students of Rob Kerrich and Kurt Kyser made
use of the method at the University of Saskatchewan, as did
Chris Roddick at the GSC. Davis (2008) modified the approach
by embedding preheated zircon in silica gel to enhance signal
strength and was able to redate the Sudbury igneous complex
to sub-Ma precision but there has been little further work.
Chemical abrasion
An alternative method of removing altered zircon for ID-
TIMS analysis was introduced by Mattinson (2005). In this
approach, zircon is annealed at 900–1000 ◦ C and then ex-
posed to HF in a high-temperature capsule for a few hours,
the same conditions that are later used to dissolve it but for
a shorter period of time. Alteration dissolves readily in HF
and the zircon residue is usually found to be concordant. As
shown by Das and Davis (2010), annealing results in recrys-
tallization of metamict zircon, which seems to prevent differ-
ential leaching of U from Pb, but if damage is high enough,
Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009

unaltered zircon will still readily dissolve. However, most zir-
con especially from Phanerozoic rocks is only moderately
damaged and therefore relatively insoluble and the leaching
removes alteration along internal cracks and high-U zones,
which cannot be accessed by air abrasion. The chemical abra-
sion method has therefore largely supplanted air abrasion,
although air abrasion is still the best method for restoring
the U–Pb system in highly damaged zircon.
202Pb–205Pb–233U–235U spike
Despite being the earliest method of isotope analysis, iso-
tope dilution still remains the most accurate and precise
method of dating. With ion microprobe and LA-ICPMS, the
measured ratios of the U and Pb signals are usually quite
Can. J. Earth Sci. Downloaded from cdnsciencepub.com by 181.233.27.21 on 02/24/24
different from the actual U/Pb ratios in the sample. The
measured ratios are biased by the different thermal and
chemical properties of U and Pb. The only way to correct for
this is to analyze standard crystals of similar composition as
the sample but having a known age (previously determined
by ID-TIMS) along with the unknown samples. Because a sep-
arate analysis must be made of the standard, this is known
as external standardization and is subject to various potential
problems that could compromise the accuracy of ages such as
whether the standard undergoes exactly the same U/Pb frac-
tionation as the sample. U and Pb emit quite differently in
For personal use only.
TIMS as well but because the spike is an internal standard
(mixed in solution and analyzed with the sample), there is no
possibility of bias and the accuracy of ages should be compa-
rable to the precision at which they can be measured.
A limitation to the precision of ID-TIMS ages is the correc-
tion for isotopic fractionation because lighter isotopes are
preferentially evaporated off the filament. This enriches the
remaining sample in the heavier isotope so the fractionation
factor gradually reduces throughout a measurement. Mea-
surements of isotopes for elements having at least two iso-
topes that are not products of radioactive decay and whose
ratio is therefore constant can be corrected for fractionation
by comparing the measured ratio with an accepted standard
value. Unfortunately, all Pb isotopes except 204 Pb are the re-
sult of decay and so are variable. However, besides 205 Pb,
there is another long-lived Pb isotope, 202 Pb, which has been
synthesized. This is also the case for 233 U. By making up a
mixed double spike with 202 Pb/205 Pb, 233 U/235 U, and 205 Pb/235 U
having precisely known ratios, it is possible to correct for Pb
and U fractionation during the measurement. This can re-
duce age errors from ±0.1% to ±0.01%, the latter correspond-
ing to about ±30 ka for a 300 Ma old sample. Solutions of this
double spike have been independently calibrated by and dis-
tributed to a consortium of ID-TIMS zircon dating labs partici-
pating in the EARTHTIME project, which was initiated by Sam
Bowring at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Some important applications
Understanding Archean terranes
Dating abraded zircon was first applied to rocks in Archean
greenstones of the western Superior province in separate
Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009
Canadian Science Publishing
studies undertaken by Corfu and Davis. These revealed a
short period of time, about 2710–2750 Ma, during which
much of the volcanism took place, as well as older crust
formed at distinct times going back to about 3000 Ma. The
analytical improvements to ID-TIMS dating of zircon opened
up the possibility of precisely dating single grains, making
it easier to pick undamaged zircon from igneous rocks but,
most importantly, making it possible to date single crystals
of detrital zircon in sedimentary rocks. Field mapping had
shown that the Superior province can be divided into a num-
ber of roughly E–W trending subprovinces, dominantly char-
acterized by volcanic, plutonic, or metasedimentary rocks.
These sedimentary rocks were derived from mountains that
no longer exist, but by dating individual grains, it was pos-
sible to determine the ages of uplifted rocks and set a maxi-
mum time limit on when the sediments were deposited, and
in some cases a minimum age from cross-cutting intrusions.
It turned out that they were largely derived from the volcanic
rocks and were deposited over a short span during a time of
regional deformation a few tens of million years after erup-
tion. Sedimentary units beneath volcanic units within the
greenstone belts were in some cases found to be younger, sug-
gesting that the volcanic units had been thrust over them. Fi-
nally, there appeared to be a systematic younging in the ages
of the metasedimentary belts from north to south across the
Superior province, suggesting that it had been assembled by
successive collisions with crustal terranes. This is strong ev-
idence that plate tectonics operated in the late Archean, al-
though the subject is still debated (Percival et al. 2006; Bédard
2018).
The first decade of using zircon abrasion combined with
mapping by the OGS enabled the recognition of terrane as-
semblages in the Superior province and culminated in the
1992 publication of the Geology of Ontario maps and vol-
umes by the OGS (Corfu and Davis 1992). During the 1990s, a
great deal of new geochronology was funded by the Litho-
probe transects as well as mapping programs by the GSC,
the Newfoundland Geological Survey, the Quebec Ministère
de l’Énergie et des Ressources Naturelles (MERN), and many
other surveys and exploration companies.
Applications of U–Pb dating to mafic and
ultramafic rocks and hydrothermal processes
Most zircon is found in felsic rocks but most magmatism
is mafic (e.g., ocean crust), producing rocks that normally do
not contain zircon. In some cases, these can be dated using
associated felsic rocks such as plagiogranites in ophiolites,
which were dated by Greg Dunning in the early days of JSGL
to record the closure of an ancient ocean preserved in central
Newfoundland (Dunning and Krogh 1985). During his Ph.D.
work at MUN, John Greenough (now at UBC) recognized the
existence of baddeleyite (ZrO2 ; Fig. 8) in mafic rocks (Krogh et
al. 1987). This trace mineral, like zircon, contains significant
U but no initial Pb. Unlike zircon, baddeleyite is chemically
inert because of its composition rather than its structure, so
it usually does not exhibit Pb loss from alteration, although
the thin tabular shape of crystals can lead to Pb loss from al-
pha recoil (Davis and Davis 2018) and it can be overgrown by a
395
 Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 8. Baddeleyite crystals from a mafic dyke.
Can. J. Earth Sci. Downloaded from cdnsciencepub.com by 181.233.27.21 on 02/24/24
thin layer of zircon. This allows it to be precisely dated with-
out any pretreatment like abrasion. However, its small size
and tabular shape made it difficult to recover off a shaking
table as with zircon. A much better recovery method was in-
troduced by Soderlund and Johansson (2002) and was a major
advance for dating mafic dykes. Baddeleyite ages measured
by LeCheminant and Heaman (1989) showed the short time
For personal use only.
span for emplacement of dyke swarms that span continental
dimensions like the Mackenzie swarm.
Baddeleyite dating has served to document and investigate
the origin of large igneous provinces that may originate from
the impact of mantle plumes beneath the lithosphere and are
the second major influence on crustal evolution besides plate
tectonics. In many cases, the impact of these plumes leads to
rifting of the continent and the formation of a new ocean
basin. By identifying dike swarms of the same age on differ-
ent continents and determining their paleomagnetic pole po-
sitions, which record the position of the continent relative to
the pole at the time the dikes were emplaced, it is possible
to reconstruct the original supercontinent. This is the conti-
nental “bar-code” approach investigated by Wouter Bleeker
at the GSC along with many others (Bleeker and Ernst 2006)
and has been continued at JSGL by Mike Hamilton and col-
leagues (Sahin and Hamilton 2019).
Perovskite has high levels of U and Th sometimes with lit-
tle common Pb and provides a rare way to date ultramafic
rocks. Perovskite ages were used, for example, to determine
the timing of kimberlite emplacement along the track of the
Great Meteor hotspot through eastern North America during
the Cretaceous (Heaman and Kjarsgaard 2000) as well as the
initiation of continental flood magmatism (Kamo et al. 2003).
Rutile, a common hydrothermal mineral, was found
to be generally low enough in common Pb to function
as a geochronometer and was first used in efforts to
date mineralization by Megan Clark followed by Jeremy
Richards (Richards et al. 1988). U–Pb dating of hydrother-
mal/metamorphic rutile and monazite suggests an extended
period of fluid movement beneath the Superior province
due to events in the lower crust (Jemielita et al. 1990).
These events were documented by Krogh (1993), using meta-
396
morphic zircon and titanite, in an exposed section of deep
Archean crust known as the Kapuskasing uplift.
Age of the solar system
Perhaps the most scientifically important achievement of
U–Pb dating was carried out by Yuri Amelin, a research fel-
low at JSGL, precisely documenting formation of the ear-
liest components of the solar system (Amelin et al. 2002).
Carbonaceous chondrites are considered to be the oldest
meteorites and consist of small spherical structures called
chondrules, which are probably solidified droplets of silicate
melt, in a fine-grained groundmass. Chondrites also contain
rare calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions called CAIs, which re-
quired much higher temperatures to melt. Understanding
the origin of these objects is key to understanding the pro-
cesses that formed the planetary system, so knowing their
precise ages is important. Yuri was the first to realize that be-
cause Pb is quite volatile relative to U; formation of a melt
droplet in a vacuum would result in evaporation of all the
Pb that it contained, so it should form with no initial Pb like
zircon. Unlike zircon, the chondrules and CAIs have very low
U concentrations but if a large enough sample to measure
can be completely separated from the groundmass, which
contains the condensed Pb, the Pb measured is almost en-
tirely radiogenic. Most meteorites are collected after having
been exposed for many years on the Earth’s surface where U
and/or Pb can be remobilized but the double-decay character
of the U–Pb system means that a precise age can be deter-
mined entirely from the Pb ratios provided any disturbance
was recent. In this way, Yuri dated CAIs as having an age of
4567.2 ± 0.6 Ma and chondrules as 4564.7 ± 0.6 Ma. Yuri con-
tinued to work on meteorites at the GSC and later at the
Australian National University. Another Canadian, Jim Con-
nelly, working at the Universities of Texas and Copenhagen,
has documented early solar system ages in detail. This work
has shown that the age of CAIs from different classes of mete-
orites is similar and they probably date the formation of the
sun, whereas those of chondrules vary and span the ages of
the earliest planetesimals (Connelly et al. 2017).
Causes of mass extinctions
The Sudbury igneous complex was precisely dated by
Krogh et al. (1984) and studies of shock metamorphic features
in zircon from host rocks helped confirm that it resulted
from a meteorite impact. Shocked zircon later proved to be
an important tool for explaining sudden changes in Earth
history. Meteorites contain much higher concentrations of
platinum group elements than the silicate portion of the
Earth. The discovery of Ir anomalies in clay at the Cretaceous–
Tertiary boundary in several locations suggested that this ex-
tinction boundary coincided with a large meteorite impact.
The impact site was unknown and thought most likely to
have occurred in an ocean basin. Further investigations of
rocks at the boundary revealed that they contain zircon with
shock-related features similar to those associated with the
Sudbury structure. It was recognized that the units contain-
ing this zircon represent fall-back material from the impact,
so this was evidence that the impact occurred on continental
Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009

crust, and was likely preserved. Krogh and Kamo defined a
Pb loss line from such zircon whose upper concordia inter-
cept gave the age of the target rock (Krogh et al. 1993). Alan
Hildebrand (now at the University of Calgary) suggested the
buried Chicxulub crater in Mexico as the impact site based on
the variation of thickness of the fall-back layer with distance
and the age of its basement matched that of the upper inter-
cept of the shocked zircon data. This work was continued by
Kamo (2012).
The largest recorded mass extinction was at the Permo-
Triassic boundary about 250 Ma ago. Bowring at MIT and col-
leagues succeeded in precisely dating this boundary in China
using zircon from volcanic ash deposits below and above it.
Ongoing work has restricted the extinction period to a time
span of 60 ± 48 ka (Burgess et al. 2014). Kamo et al. (2003)
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showed that the timing of extinction coincides with massive
volcanic eruptions in Siberia implying that an influx of CO2
and other volcanogenic gases into the atmosphere created a
worldwide hot house climate that caused over 80% of species
in the oceans to die out.
Dating of hydrogenic minerals
Use of the U–Pb system to date sedimentary carbonates was
pioneered by Smith and Farquhar (1989) at the University of
Toronto using ID-TIMS. The rarity of carbonate samples with
high enough U/Pb ratios to be dated discouraged further ap-
For personal use only.
plications. Following on work by Ken Ludwig at USGS, Yuri
Amelin at JSGL dated opaline silica and other minerals as-
sociated with groundwater movement at the proposed Yucca
Mountain for the USGS (Neymark et al. 2002). One of the most
important new applications opened up by LA-ICPMS includes
U–Pb dating of hydrogenic minerals, particularly carbonates.
Groundwater is usually saturated in Ca and moves from re-
gions of higher to lower pressure. Lower pressure reduces sol-
ubility and thus results in precipitation of secondary carbon-
ate in veins. Dating of secondary carbonates has provided a
record of groundwater movements that may result from dis-
tant tectonic events (Sutcliffe et al. 2020). This is of particular
relevance to the problem of finding a suitable repository for
radioactive waste (Davis et al. 2020).
Zircon as a repository of planetary
history
In addition to U, zircon contains a high proportion of the
element hafnium and 176 Hf is the daughter product of the de-
cay of 176 Lu, the heaviest rare-earth element. Because of this
decay system, the 176 Hf/177 Hf ratio changes in rocks at a rate
proportional to the Lu/Hf ratio of the rock, which is signif-
icantly higher in mafic and mantle rocks than it is in felsic
crustal rocks. Therefore, this ratio will be measurably higher
in a rock when it formed if it was derived from the mantle
over a short time period than if it was derived from or con-
taminated by melting of much older continental crust. The
same is true for the 147 Sm–143 Nd system in whole rocks. The
advantage of 176 Lu–176 Hf in zircon is that the Lu/Hf ratio is
very low, so there is only a small correction to make to deter-
mine the Hf isotopic ratio at the time the rock formed and
Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009
Canadian Science Publishing
U–Pb provides a precise age. One of the first applications of
Hf isotopes to zircon was by Smith et al. (1987) from Archean
rocks in the Superior province. Corfu and Noble (1992) also
used it to carry out an early study of Archean rocks in the
Superior province. Hf is difficult to ionize by TIMS, the only
method available at this time, so they had to develop their
own procedures. The later introduction of ICPMS made it
much easier to analyze Hf as well as many other isotopic sys-
tems. Davis et al. (2005) later used this method to determine
Hf isotopes in many more samples from the western Superior
province using U–Pb column washes that had been archived.
The data revealed that some terranes appear juvenile, while
others were derived from much older crust. With increased
sensitivity of ICPMS instruments, the ablated material can be
split with part going into a quadruple MS for U–Pb dating and
part into a multicollector sector MS for measuring Lu–Hf iso-
topes (a part can also be split off for trace element analysis).
John Valley from the University of Minnesota recognized
that oxygen isotopic ratios in zircon can provide a record of
changes through geologic time. His student, Liz King, sam-
pled the collection of Archean zircon at the JSGL using con-
ventional methods on bulk zircon. Although most rocks gave
oxygen isotope ratios characteristic of the mantle, zircon
from a suite of late plutons showed higher ratios, which indi-
cate that they interacted with sedimentary rocks (King et al.
1998). After developing a method for precise measurement
using an ion microprobe, another of his students measured
oxygen isotopes in the old Hadean zircon from Jack Hills and
found a small proportion with high ratios, which can only
be the result of weathered rocks having been remelted and
contaminating the magma. This meant that sediments must
have existed as early as 4300 Ma ago along with a very early
ocean. Large data sets of age, Hf isotope and O isotopic data
have been assembled to search for changes through time and
what they mean for planetary development (e.g., Spencer et
al. 2022).
Ti in zircon can be used as a paleothermometer to mea-
sure the temperature at which it formed (Watson and Har-
rison 2005). In addition, the Eu anomaly in zircon has been
proposed as a paleopressure indicator, recording the depth of
crystallization (Tang et al. 2021). This might potentially allow
the measurement of crustal thickness through time by ana-
lyzing large sets of detrital zircon in sediments. Zircon has
such great utility because of its widespread distribution and
durability and because it can be precisely dated. It will prob-
ably continue to open up new avenues of research into the
past as analytical methods become more refined.
Prospects for further advances in U–Pb
dating
A timeline showing the development of various instrumen-
tal approaches to U–Pb dating of zircon is shown in Fig. 9.
ID-TIMS and SIMS are relatively mature technologies but LA-
ICPMS is still rapidly evolving, so this approach is most likely
to bring significant advances for analyzing zircon in the near
future. Although ionization is close to 100% in the plasma,
397
 Canadian Science Publishing
Fig. 9. Timeline showing the historical development of meth-
ods for U–Pb geochronology.
Can. J. Earth Sci. Downloaded from cdnsciencepub.com by 181.233.27.21 on 02/24/24
the extraction efficiency of ions into the mass spectrometer
is still low, so there is much room for improvement.
A significant recent advance in TIMS is the introduction
of Faraday multicollectors where signals are measured from
charge buildup on capacitors (Atona™ system by Isotopix)
rather than the conventional way of measuring the voltage
across a high value (1011 –1014  resistor). This reduces noise
by 1–2 orders of magnitude. Fitting such a detector onto an
MC-ICPMS should allow zircon dating by LA at a much higher
For personal use only.
level of precision than is now possible.
The application of new types of mass spectrometry might
also transform U–Pb geochronology. The most versatile ap-
proach would be ICPMS using a time-of-flight mass spectrom-
eter. This approach has the advantage that every isotope in
the sample can in principle be measured and different masses
are measured from the same batch of ions giving the same ad-
vantage as multicollection. The sensitivity of present instru-
ments is limited partly by the fact that ions produced in the
plasma while other ions are passing through the flight tube
cannot be measured but if these could somehow be stored
pending analysis, sensitivity might be greatly improved.
Most U–Pb dating has been applied to igneous processes
where U is in the reduced (+4) state. In the surficial environ-
ment, U can be in the oxidized (+6) state where it is soluble
and becomes enriched in organic material undergoing dia-
genesis. A rapidly developing field is the application of U–
Pb geochronology to direct dating of carbonates and phos-
phates. This includes fossils and pedogenic carbonate. The
latter can potentially preserve information on atmospheric
composition in the geologic past through organic versus in-
organic C isotope compositions and on temperature using
clumped O isotope measurements. The success of these ef-
forts will depend in part on improvements in LA-ICPMS in-
struments, particularly the use of femtosecond lasers for im-
proved accuracy.
Concluding remarks
Many workers have made important contributions that
have not been mentioned here and the Canadian contribu-
tion to understanding Earth history remains disproportion-
ately large. Much of this resulted directly or indirectly from
398
the work of Tom Krogh, but it is also worth asking what insti-
tutional traits contributed to the success of the JSGL. The lab
set-up was due to a collaboration between three institutions.
The ROM provided the space for a major renovation, a curator
position for Tom Krogh, and additional salaries for secretary
and mass spectrometer technician. University of Toronto pro-
vided Tom Krogh with a full professor faculty position with
no salary but this position allowed him to apply for NSERC
funding. The OGS provided funding for a mass spectrometer
and committed to a starting contract for U–Pb geochronol-
ogy of $100 K per year for 10 years, which allowed the hiring
of a geochronologist and technician. It is difficult to imagine
such cooperation and long-term commitment from three in-
dependent organizations today.
The conditions of its origin were important in defining the
subsequent development of the lab, which may be unique in
that it is largely self-funded, while most other labs are run un-
der, and supported by, a single institution. This was possible
because of the fact that geochronology has become a routine
part of geological mapping programs so there are sources of
funding on projects where the data make a significant scien-
tific contribution. A recent example is the Metal Earth Project
out of Laurentian University in which Mike Hamilton is a
leading geochronologist.
The geochronologist is privileged to work with a wide vari-
ety of experts in other fields such as mapping, structural ge-
ology, geochemistry, and paleontology, people who can often
see a wealth of detail in a rock or outcrop that to most peo-
ple would seem featureless. Such details reveal the history of
the planet and are our only guide to its future. The applica-
tion of geochronology is not just dating a rock but also dating
a process. As mentioned, modern Earth science looks at the
planet as a system of interdependent processes that fluctu-
ate over different time scales. A deep understanding of this is
essential for continuing survival because human activity has
now reached the point where it is a major geological force,
giving its name to the most recent geological epoch, the An-
thropocene, marked by rapid global changes and mass extinc-
tion. Thus far, there is little evidence that human society is
collectively willing to take the actions necessary to mitigate
these changes when they conflict with perceptions of short-
term gain. Only a clear understanding of planetary history
can undo the myth of human exceptionalism that threatens
our continued existence.
Acknowledgements
Sandra Kamo, Mike Hamilton, and Henry Halls are thanked
for reviewing earlier versions of the manuscript and remem-
bering important details. Fernando Corfu and an anonymous
reviewer are thanked for suggestions that significantly im-
proved the manuscript.
Article information
History dates
Received: 16 January 2023
Accepted: 24 February 2023
Can. J. Earth Sci. 60: 388–400 (2023) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2023-0009

Accepted manuscript online: 8 March 2023
Version of record online: 24 March 2023
Notes
This invited article is part of a collection that celebrates the
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences’ 60th anniversary.
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