aftsolve a program for multi kinetic modeling of apatite fission track data aftsolve is a computer program for deriving thermal history information from apatite fission track data it implements a new fission track annealing model that takes into account the known kinetic variability among different apatite species to fully utilize this model a fission track worker must obtain data that can be used to infer the kinetic characteristics of each apatite grain from which a measurement was taken such data can consist of etch figure lengths or chemical composition the benefit of this overall approach is that it allows useful information to be derived from previously unusable analyses extends the practical range of geological temperatures constrained by fission track analyses and increases overall confidence in model predictions aftsolve also incorporates the effects of fission track orientation relative to the apatite crystallographic c axis variation in initial track length and the biasing effect of 2 5 2 cf irradiation for enhancing confined horizontal track length detection aftsolve is written for windows operating systems and has a graphical interface that allows interactive input of thermal histories and real time generation of estimates for fission track length distributions and ages for up to six simultaneously modeled kinetic populations it also includes procedures for estimating the range of time temperature histories that are statistically consistent with a data set and constraints entered by the user

burial history of palaeozoic strata in belgium as revealed by conodont colour alteration data and thickness distributions thickness distributions of devono carboniferous formations and their relationship to conodont colour alteration indices cais from over 500 sample locations in belgium and northern france have been studied to reconstruct the thermal alteration and burial history of palaeozoic rocks the depositional centre during eifelian through visean times was located in the subsiding southern part of the dinant basin forming a thick sedimentary pile of probably more than 3 5 km in order to explain conodont cais chiefly resulting from upper carboniferous sedimentation two different depositional centres are considered giving rise to approximately 4 5 km of sediment in the central part of the dinant and namur basins as a consequence of the northward shifting variscan fold belt the upper carboniferous succession in the southern part of the dinant basin and in the rocroi area was reduced or absent conodont cais together with other thermal alteration data from the condroz massif indicate that this area was a structural high for most of the devonian the brabant massif was probably covered with approximately 1 5 2 0 km of upper carboniferous sediments in the south and less than 1 0 km in the central and northern parts in the central campine basin visean strata could have been buried by 3 5 4 5 km of upper carboniferous rocks

geophysical geological transect and tectonic evolution of the swiss italian alps a complete alpine cross section integrates numerous seismic reflection and refraction profiles across and along strike with published and new field data the deepest parts of the profile are constrained by geophysical data only while structural features at intermediate levels are largely depicted according to the results of three dimensional models making use of seismic and field geological data the geometry of the highest structural levels is constrained by classical along strike projections of field data parallel to the pronounced easterly axial dip of all tectonic units because the transect is placed close to the western erosional margin of the austroalpine nappes of the eastern alps it contains all the major tectonic units of the alps a model for the tectonic evolution along the transect is proposed in the form of scaled and area balanced profile sketches shortening within the austroalpine nappes is testimony of a separate cretaceous age orogenic event west directed thrusting in these units is related to westward propagation of a thrust wedge resulting from continental collision along the meliata hallstatt ocean further to the east considerable amounts of oceanic and continental crustal material were subducted during tertiary orogeny which involved some 500 km of n s convergence between europe and apulia consequently only a very small percentage of this crustal material is preserved within the nappes depicted in the transect postcollisional shortening is characterized by the simultaneous activity of gently dipping north directed detachments and steeply inclined south directed detachments both detachments nucleating at the interface between lower and upper crust large scale wedging of the adriatic or apulian lower crust into a gap opening between the subduced european lower crust and the pile of thin upper crustal flakes alpine nappes indicates a relatively strong lower crust and detachment between upper and lower crust

climatic signal of ice melt features in southern greenland the stratigraphie record of melt features in intermediate depth polar ice cores has provided valuable data on past summer climate1 3 the thermal drilling technique used in previous studies precluded extending this record beyond a few hundred years recently however a 901 m deep ice core was mechanically drilled in southern greenland the excellent core quality and improved techniques for measuring melt features have resulted in an 2 200 yr record with consistently high quality data we report here that the temporal variations in melt feature abundance expressed as annual melt per cent amp provide proxy data on summer climate that can complement other records extending back thousands of years the amp profile indicates that relatively warm summers prevailed from about ad 950 until ad 1500 culminating in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the periods from about 300 to 150 bc ad 350 to 550 and ad 1550 to 1800 had relatively little summer melting

geological interpretation of dekorp deep seismic reflection profiles 1c and 9n across the variscan saar nahe basin southwest germany abstract deep seismic reflection results across the variscan saar nahe basin in southwest germany recorded as parts of dekorp lines 1c and 9n provide excellent images of the geometry of the basin and also of the structures in the underlying basement this basement consists of several discrete units some of which are highly reflective whereas others are essentially non reflective two of these units consist of well layered dipping reflectors that are interpreted as having been telescoped by thrusting adjacent to the south hunsruck fault the sedimentary pile within the saar nahe basin is over 8 km thick but it thins dramatically towards the southeast and east the position of continuous reflectors both in the basin and the basement indicate that the south hunsruck fault is subvertical and not a listric normal fault as proposed in several earlier interpretations this implies that the basin did not form by normal extension but that it is transtensional in character its geometry predominantly being controlled by strike slip movements on the south hunsruck fault

accretion of a rifted passive margin the late paleozoic rhenohercynian fold and thrust belt middle european variscides in the western rhenish massif the rhenohercynian fold and thrust belt of the middle european varsicides exposes a telescoped complete devonian to early carboniferous passive margin this permits the analysis of geometry and kinematic processes of passive margin accretion to an erogenic wedge during variscan collision 330 300 ma the sedimentary cover of the passive margin was shortened by some 50 or 180 km crustal scale balancing and restoration reveals a wide symmetric rift with a central graben a marginal plateau separated this failed lower devonian rift from an emsian middle devonian oceanic basin in the south remnants of which are preserved in the southernmost imbricates and the giessen harz nappes the seismically well imaged aachen midi detachment faille du midi acted as the basal decollement of this thin to thick skinned orogenic wedge it shows a ramp and flat geometry from the blind tip down to middle crustal levels owing to its position below the base of the basin fill the thick synrift sequence and structure controlled structural evolution during contraction by localizing thrust branch lines and by inversion of rift structures synthetic to the subduction direction with formation of basement footwall shortcuts moreover the three dimensional detachment geometry shows large scale oblique ramp flat features which control the architecture of the belt and the distribution of metamorphic grade rocks and fabrics from the detachment show that the latter was located at the transition into the ductile field at the fossil 300 400 c isotherm in the restored section the detachment trajectory displays a saucershaped geometry rising to the surface at the rear and at the front this suggests that the basal detachment propagated into the passive margin by ductile failure during lithospheric flexure under the load of an advancing upper plate the regional pattern of synkinematic metamorphic grade shows varying modes of margin accretion basal underplating into the orogenic wedge by the shelf slope and marginal plateau with formation of duplex stacks and elongate thrust sheets and frontal accretion of the remaining thicker failed rift in the north into the propagating wedge with formation of several imbricate fans cyclical changes in accretion history and or critical taper are suggested by spaced domains of out of sequence thickening these are also related to internal domainal kinematic partitioning of the wedge controlled by oblique collision

the variscan belt of northern france southern belgium geodynamic implications of new palaeomagnetic data abstract palaeomagnetic investigations were carried out in devonian early carboniferous rocks of the variscan foreland chain of northern france southern belgium in order to reveal the origin of its arcuate shape the brabant parautochthon was sampled in the boulonnais near calais and near tournai while the ardenne allochthon was sampled near maubeuge and in the givet area all the sampled localities yielded characteristic remanent magnetization as a result of stepwise demagnetization and component analysis fold or tilt tests were possible for three localities with negative results indicating pervasive remagnetization the tectonic position was sub horizontal at two localities while the tilt was monoclinal for the rest therefore the acquisition time of the magnetic signals was estimated by comparing the palaeolatitude computed from each magnetic component to the palaeolatitudes of variscan europe calculated after van der voo 1993 three components showing a a southern b a near equatorial and c a northern palaeolatitude are recognized from our data since a pre variscan age of component a observed only in boulonnais at 10 sites is not supported by data it is assigned to an early phase of deformation component b 16 sites was acquired during the peak of the variscan tectonics late westphalian while component c five sites originated during permian times regardless of the palaeolatitudes declinations fall between 190 and 210 thus being conformable with the declinations expected for variscan europe the declinations show no correlation with the arcuate shape of the belt neither are they different in the paraauthochthon and in the allochthon nor in the different components arc formation by moulding of the allochthon on the brabant parautochthon is therefore not supported by these data since this mechanism requires substantial opposed rotations on both wings of the arc the available palaeomagnetic data are conformable with a pre formed arc simply docking to the brabant obstacle of similar shape variable offsets along a main thrust make possible a third model which slightly unfolds the former passive arc

empirical calibration of the oxygen isotope fractionation between quartz and fe mg chlorite abstract an empirical calibration has been made of the oxygen isotope fractionation between chlorite and quartz using samples from localities in metamorphic terrains where the formation temperature has been constrained by independent methods e g fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures mineral assemblages and petrology of the host rocks to the veins thermodynamic modeling and raman spectrometry textural equilibrium of chlorite and quartz was a pre requisite and the chemical composition of chlorite was determined the chlorite analyzed had a range in fe mg varying between 0 35 and 0 7 except for pure mg chlorite fe mg substitution within the range measured does not change the oxygen isotope fractionation between quartz and chlorite measurably the results support a linear correlation for chlorite quartz fractionation over the temperature range given by this study 240 550 c 1000 ln 0 01323 0 002 t c 10 97 0 92 the presently established geothermometer can be applied to quartz chlorite fractionations in low grade metamorphic rocks and may be extrapolated to diagenetic systems

pre and synorogenic burial metamorphism in the ardenne and neighbouring areas rhenohercynian zone central european variscides abstract the rhenohercynian zone of the central european variscides contains in the central ardenne eifel brabant campine region of belgium france germany and luxemburg an omnipresent thermal overprint which reaches in places uppermost epizonal conditions because of its distribution and structural relationships this metamorphism cannot be explained by a singular tectonometamorphic event field and microstructural observations new illite crystallinity and other data relating to this metamorphism are presented together with a review of existing petrological illite crystallinity vitrinite reflectance conodont alteration index and fluid inclusion data and their relationship to small and regional scale geological structures three distinct geotectonic situations can be described which overlap and alternate in space and time 1 the oldest metamorphism which reached epizonal conditions can be localized in the pre devonian basement rocks of the brabant massif and with minor evidence of the stavelot massif further south it is clearly related to a pre variscan caledonian deformation event and could be of burial origin 2 the main regional metamorphism affected all devonian and carboniferous rocks and the lower palaeozoic basement highs of the ardenne eifel area it does not exceed diagenetic conditions in some areas but reaches maximal values of 500 c and 400 mpa in the serpont and rocroi massif areas theye and fransolet 1993 robion et al 1995 it is pre to synkinematic to the main variscan contractional penetrative deformation and correlates well with the age and thickness of the sedimentary cover rocks the metamorphism is associated with the pre carboniferous preorogenic rifting stage of the rhenohercynian basin and documents the peak of subsidence and sediment accumulation we interpret it as diastathermal metamorphism it reaches its maximum in the low grade metamorphic zones of the ardenne area which are inverted synsedimentary structures 3 the diastathermal metamorphism is overprinted in the central part of the ardenne eifel area middle devonian to carboniferous rocks of the dinant synclinorium by an anchizonal beginning epizonal metamorphism in the foreland basins north of the midi fault zone it reaches diagenetic to lowermost anchizonal conditions it is the expression of the burial by thick synorogenic mid to upper carboniferous cover rocks which were deposited in piggyback and foreland basins this clastic wedge relates to the carboniferous contraction of the rhenohercynian basin whose metamorphosed rocks were themselves affected by the deformation of the advancing orogenic front

post palaeozoic cooling and uplift of the brabant massif as revealed by apatite fission track analysis a fission track study has been carried out on apatite from the igneous rock belt running along the southern border of the brabant massif the study includes age determinations and a length analysis of both surface tracks and confined tracks apatite fission track ages vary between 146 ma and 209 ma confined track length distributions and the projected length age spectra indicate that the rocks cooled relatively rapidly from above 100 degrees c to ambient temperatures the fission track ages therefore date a cooling phase of the brabant massif which is interpreted as reflecting an important uplift during the major part of the jurassic related to the cimmerian tectonism which affected the north sea basin and adjacent areas two apatite samples from the southerly dinant basin yield fission track ages around 200 ma similar to the oldest ages observed in the brabant massif and with comparable track length characteristics this indicates that the uplift was not limited to the brabant region but also affected the hercynian basement to the south

three dimensional accommodation analysis of the triassic in the paris basin a new approach in unravelling the basin evolution with time abstract the mechanisms governing the development of the paris basin throughout the triassic are regarded as being the result of superimposed and successive processes in this study the triassic succession of the paris basin was re interpreted in a sequence stratigraphic context using essentially wireline log data from this a series of isopach maps lithofacies maps and palaeobathymetric maps was produced for each sequence three dimensional accommodation analysis was then carried out sequence by sequence over the entire basin to produce a precise detailed accommodation history for the entire triassic succession previous studies have proposed that the triassic was deposited during a rift period in a transtensional stress regime with the formation of a trough superposed onto three fault systems derived from the variscan structural framework in this study scythian to ladinian sediments buntsandstein and muschelkalk record the stress regime that prevailed over much of nw europe the basin architecture at this time is in continuity with the neighbouring germanic basin our three dimensional accommodation modelling shows that the stress regime changed during the carnian and the late norian keuper the carnian events are marked by 1 the creation of a large depocentre infilled with halite and 2 a northwest migration of this depocentre during the mid late carnian along with deposition of the gres a roseaux an extensive fluvial deposit this documents renewed strike slip movement along the bray fault the norian events involved major tectonic uplift on the basin margins producting fan delta progradation into the basin rotation of the previous depocentre axis occurs on the downthrown side of the bray fault this may be viewed as a consequence of sinistral strike slip displacement along the bray fault forming a local transpressive stress regime the following liassic cycle commenced with the rhaetic sequences and illustrates a complete change in the stress regime this corresponds with the new stress regime which prevailed over northwest europe during the liassic cycle accommodation curves from the basin complement this interpretation recognising two major accommodation phases which are separated by a significant unconformity both phases record periods of accelerating accommodation followed by a more uniform phase of decelerating accommodation the accelerating phases correspond to periods of rapid accommodation space creation and result in thick evaporite deposits they correspond to rift pulses which occurred in the remote north atlantic and tethyan domain each accommodation phase is proposed to correspond to lithospheric stretching pulses followed by a relaxation period this study illustrates the importance of sequence stratigraphy coupled with three dimensional accommodation analysis in refining important stages in the basin evolution with time

the variscan front and the midi fault between the channel and the meuse river abstract the ecors seismic profile allows a new insight into the deep geology of northern france various geological data such as ancient coal mines surface mapping and boreholes are used to interpret the seismic profile a new cross section directly superimposed on the ecors seismic profile cambrai dreux is compared with a previous one drawn along the meuse river through the ardenne massif the cylindrism and length balancing hypotheses are discussed by comparing the two cross sections the main geological results are a the emplacement of the dinant nappe is later than most of its internal deformation and b major folding and thrusting give an approximate 30 35 shortening without taking into account the internal deformation minor folding and cleavage and the unknown net translation vector of the dinant nappe 50 km at least possibly 150 km

a comparison of evidence for late holocene summer temperature variations in the northern hemisphere data on glacier tree line tree ring pollen and ice core variations in north america greenland and europe during the last 2000 yr up to a d 1800 are compared in detail on the century time scale only data that may be indicative of summer temperature changes are included since these comprise most of the available paleoclimatic information although some variations especially of glaciers may have been in response to precipitation changes instead radiocarbon dates and 14c dated records are converted to calendar dendrochronological years using the calibration of m stuiver 1982 radiocarbon 24 1 26 despite the basic uncertainties in dating interpretation response times and noise level of proxy climatic data there is at times good agreement among different kinds of evidence from within a region to suggest an episode of generally warmer or cooler summers three previously identified episodes find expression in records from all of the regions considered the little ice age of the last few centuries a medieval warm period around the 12th century a d and an earlier cold period some time between the 8th and 10th centuries however the timing of minima and maxima within these episodes seems to have varied from region to region although the evidence is consistent within regions in the 15th century summers were warm in the eastern canadian arctic and southern greenland while there was a cold episode in europe and western north america

variability of apatite fission track annealing kinetics ii crystallographic orientation effects a method is presented that permits the length of any horizontal confined fission track inclined at a specified angle to the crystallographic c axis in apatite to be converted to an equivalent track length parallel to the crystallographic c axis the model is based on the results of annealing experiments for six selected apatites five calcian fluorapatites and durango apatite representing a subset of the 15 total apatite specimens studied an iterative process of calculation is required to project fission track lengths onto the c axis and computer source code implementing the solution to this problem is presented this method of projecting apatite fission track lengths onto the crystallographic c axis is shown to remove effectively fission track length variation within single fission track populations due to anisotropic track length reduction for all 15 apatites studied in addition a model is developed that offers predictions that closely reproduce published experimental data concerning the relationship between fission track density etched fission tracks per unit area of apatite surface and the arithmetic mean fission track length finally it is shown that natural fission track populations exhibit fission track length anisotropy similar to that of fission track populations created and annealed in the laboratory this observation implies that the same process by which apatite fission tracks anneal in the laboratory is responsible for annealing of apatite fission tracks in the geological environment

structural analysis of the adjacent acadian and variscan fold belts in belgium and northern france from geophysical and geological evidence abstract two palaeozoic fold belts are juxtaposed in belgium and northern france the northern belt of the brabant massif traditionally considered a part of the european caledonides was folded during the acadian orogeny in the early devonian although it is largely concealed gravity and magnetic maps give a general picture of the existing structures a curved gravity trend is interpreted as an arc shaped succession of granitic batholiths structures north and south of this arc are completely different the northern subdomain containing magnetic lower cambrian metasediments shows multiple thrust faults towards the south over the granites whereas the southern subdomain without magnetic rocks is moulded around the granitic core the southern variscan belt is characterized in general by thrusting with a north nw and ne vergence during the variscan orogeny the brabant massif acted as an obstacle to the general transport of the ardennes massif to the n nw the oblique convergence with the brabant massif caused differential displacement towards the northwest the western areas having travelled farther as seen from a pattern of wnw oriented strike slip faults

arcuate fold and cleavage patterns in the southeastern part of the anglo brabant fold belt belgium tectonic implications abstract the brabant massif belgium is situated at the southeastern extremity of the anglo brabant fold belt the predominantly concealed eastern branch of the british belgian caledonides in contrast to the other parts of this caledonian slate belt the deformation history in the brabant massif has to date never been constrained properly in this paper a synthesis is presented of the structural observations in the limited outcrop area of the brabant massif in particular with respect to cleavage and fold trajectories and mutual cleavage fold relationships arcuate fold and cleavage patterns as well as the presence of cleavage transected folds are demonstrated similar to the other parts of the belt moreover the arcuate trajectories are considered to reflect the trace of the caledonian deformation front once obscured by the variscan ardenne allochthon combined with interpretations of the aeromagnetic and bouguer anomaly maps an overall kinematic model is proposed for the acadian deformation event in the brabant massif with the proposed model calling upon processes of indentation by promontories and lateral escape of lithostructural domains as well as on the control exerted by rigid granitoid basement blocks the strong similarities with the other parts of the british belgian caledonides become apparent by defining an overall shortening direction and proposing a trace for the caledonian deformation front in this southeastern extremity of the anglo brabant fold belt an integrated tectonic image is obtained for the entire british belgian caledonides

planation surfaces of the armorican massif western france denudation chronology of a mesozoic land surface twice exhumed in response to relative crustal movements between iberia and eurasia the armorican massif an extensive outcrop of variscan basement in western france is shaped by several planation surfaces of debated origin and age we propose an evolution model for these landforms and their deformation based on detailed mapping of the planation surfaces their relative chronology and their relationships with dated outcrops of sediments and weathering products the armorican landscape consists of six stepped planation surfaces labelled ps1 to ps6 later incised by two successive river networks these landforms are pediments and pediplains or polygenic landforms armorican planation surface ps5 resulting from two periods of etchplanation these planation surfaces are mostly pre late cretaceous in age based on the age of the sediments overlapping these pediments the three older ones ps1 to ps3 are pre pliensbachian 191 183 ma ps4 is pre bajocian 170 168 ma ps5 here called the armorican planation surface is polygenic and ranges from the base of the early cretaceous to the base of the bartonian 140 40 ma and the youngest ps6 which is poorly constrained is older than 40 ma base of the bartonian or 15 ma base of the middle miocene most of these old landforms are exhumed i e they were buried by sediments and later re exposed by denudation at least two phases of burial and exhumation have been identified 1 burial in jurassic time followed by denudation during the early cretaceous and 2 burial in late cretaceous time followed by denudation during the latest cretaceous to early eocene the depth of burial is unknown but is probably low due to the small amount of coeval siliciclastic sediments in the surrounding basins the two periods of exhumation correspond to critical periods in the plate movements between africa iberia and eurasia the first is probably related to the initiation and breakup of the rift between iberia and eurasia and the second to the convergence between these two plates

theoretical prediction for several important equilibrium ge isotope fractionation factors and geological implications article i nfo this study estimates equilibrium fractionation factors in the ge isotope system including the dominant aqueous ge oh 4 and geo oh 3 species in seawater ge bearing organic complexes e g ge catechol ge oxalic acid and ge citric acid and ge in quartz or opal albite k feldspar olivine and sphalerite like structures estimations are based on urey model or bigeleisen mayer equation and high level quantum

palaeozoic clay mineral sedimentation and diagenesis in the dinant and avesnes basins belgium france relationships with variscan tectonism abstract clay mineral investigations have been performed on more than 500 limestones and shales sampled in lower devonian emsian to lower carboniferous namurian outcrops in the dinant and avesnes basins ardenne massif nw europe clay mineral data have been placed in the palaeoenvironmental and structural histories documented by previous lithological stratigraphical palaeontological diagenetic and tectonic contexts the clay associations are dominated by illite and chlorite derived partly from the erosion of land masses surrounding the marine domain the geothermal gradient estimated from correlation with conodont colour alteration index ranges between 40 and 70 c km a diachronous northwards migration of the diagenesis metamorphism interface links to uplift caused by late carboniferous compressional folding and overthrusting associated clay minerals include smectite locally preserved from diagenetic changes mainly by early pore closure that reflect lagoonal or quiet offshore marine conditions smectite and subordinate kaolinite abundances decrease upwards during the devonian in three successive intervals suggesting alternations of sub arid to drier climates the local occurrence of corrensite ordered chlorite smectite mixed layer is attributed to the moderate diagenetic transformation of pre existing smectite

the oxidation state of manganese in ferromanganese nodules and deep sea sediments from the central indian ocean abstract ferromanganese nodules from different sediment facies including siliceous ooze pelagic clay sediments from transition zone of siliceous and pelagic clay and seamount crusts from the central indian ocean were analysed for chemical composition mineralogy and bulk oxidation state of mn by the iodometric method despite considerable variation in chemical composition mn fe ratio times from 1 35 to 7 42 and mineralogy the o mn ratio or mno x solid hydrous manganese oxide does not vary much from 1 73 to 1 81 suggesting most of the mn in the manganese nodules in mn iv the oxidised upper zone in the sediment cores decreases in thickness from 15 cm in the north 5 s to 11 cm in the southern part 14 s of the central indian ocean iodometric titration of deep sea sediments yields o mn ratios of 1 29 1 95 sediments from the manganese nodule field have maximum solid mn concentrations and lower o mn ratios in the core top 0 3 cm with minimum mn and o mn ratios at 11 cm depth and thus may reflect the mechanism controlling the supply of diagenetic mn to the nodules in contrast sediments from the non manganese nodule field have comparatively low solid phase mn concentrations in the core top 0 3 cm and almost uniform o mn ratios with depth indicating that mn is not preserved in the sediments but may be remobilised and deposited somewhere else

zircon fission track thermochronology and applications to fault studies zircon is one of the most useful minerals used to unravel the earth s history recorded in rocks after the success of etching fission tracks in zircon fleischer et al 1964 naeser 1969 krishnaswami et al 1974 early studies focused primarily on dating young volcanic horizons for stratigraphic purposes e g naeser et al 1973 hurford et al 1976 seward 1979 gleadow 1980 kowallis et al 1986 kohn et al 1992 subsequently fission track analysis of zircon has been extensively employed along with other radiometric dating methods such as u pb and u th he techniques e g davis et al 2003 reiners 2005 to understand the thermochronology of rocks in a variety of geological settings i e thermal history analysis of basement rocks for orogenic studies e g zeilter et al 1982 hurford 1986 kamp et al 1989 sorkhabi 1993 seward and mancktelow 1994 hasebe and tagami 2001 spikings et al 2001 thermochronology using detrital zircon grains in sedimentary rocks for provenance analysis and thermal history analysis in or near faults which will be highlighted below in this present chapter the thermal sensitivity of the zircon fission track thermochronometry is reviewed in the context of laboratory and field studies then laboratory procedures of the zircon fission track analysis using the external detector method are outlined as practiced in the fission track laboratory of kyoto university for basic fundamentals of these fission track analyses including data analysis and graphical displays see the chapter by tagami and o sullivan 2005 finally as an example of recent geological applications of the technique the results of zircon fission track analysis of the nojima fault zone japan are presented these rocks were the target of systematic drilling of an active fault system using five boreholes and a trench applications to other geological settings and the