Research Advances of Thermochronology in Mineral Deposits

Yang Li; Yuan Wanming; Wang Ke

Abstract：Isotopic geochronology,a traditional subject to obtain absolute isotopic ages based on radioactive decay theory,has been widely used to date geological time in various fields.With theoretical innovation and technical developments,the isotopic geochronology gradually develops into the thermochronology that is of closure temperature feature and could not only date geo-logical event,but also ascertain both temperature and thermal history of economic geological event.Since various methods have different closure temperatures,several thermochronology techniques could be synthetically applied to recover whole geological evolution history in a wide range of temperature and/or age.The thermochronology methods are especially used to reveal min-eralization ages and epochs,rates of exhumation-erosion of ore deposit or ore district,and ore deposit preservation potential, providing evidences for deep ore prospecting and mineralizing potentiality evaluation.This paper summarizes the middle-low temperature thermochronology methods that have been utilized in mineralization,such as 40Ar/39Ar,fission track and (U-Th)/He techniques,and then presents research developments.It is expected that this work should provide new research contents and helpful technical methods for ore deposit field.