2007 GSA Denver Annual Meeting (28–31 October 2007)

Paper No. 5
Presentation Time: 2:30 PM

U-PB DATING OF OPAL IN DEEPLY BURIED SOILS, YUCCA MOUNTAIN, NEVADA, USING SECONDARY-ION MASS SPECTROMETRY


NEYMARK, Leonid A., US Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Mailbox 25046, MS 963, Denver, CO 80225-0046, PACES, James B., U.S. Geol Survey, Box 25046, MS963, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225-0046, WOODEN, Joseph L., U.S.G.S.-Stanford Ion Microprobe Laboratory, Green Building, Rm 89, 367 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305-2220 and BUESCH, David C., U.S. Geological Survey, 1180 N Town Center Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89144-6363, lneymark@usgs.gov

The uranium-series method commonly is used to date carbonate and silica components of desert soils ranging in age from a few ka to about 350 ka by 230Th/U or up to 1 Ma using 234U/238U model ages assuming initial U isotopic compositions. Methods that allow direct dating of soils older than 1 Ma have not been widely developed or applied, even though many such soils are present in the southwestern U.S.  This work presents initial U-Pb dating results of pedogenic opal older than 1 Ma using secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).

Opal samples were collected from calcite/silica cements or rinds on rock clasts from core samples of basal alluvium at depths 27 to 37 m below the land surface in Midway Valley, Nevada, adjacent to the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.  U-series thermal-ionization mass-spectrometry (TIMS) data on samples of these pedogenic materials indicate that ages are older than the dating range of the 230Th/U method. The high U (tens of µg/g) and low common-Pb and Th concentrations, and negligible radiogenic 208Pb allow 206Pb/208Pb-238U/208Pb isochron dating of 30-µm-diameter spots on polished cross sections by SIMS using the USGS-Stanford Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe - Reverse Geometry. Isotope analyses of 7 to 17 spots on multiple fragments for each of 5 separate samples yield 206Pb/238U isochron ages of 1.6 to 2.7 Ma. Measured 234U/238U ratios for the same SIMS analytical sessions are within error of secular equilibrium values, in agreement with > 1 Ma opal ages. However, previous TIMS data for younger pedogenic opal in the area indicate the presence of excess initial 234U, which would have produced excess 206Pb that is unsupported by measured 238U.  Therefore, corrections for 206Pb excess were applied using an initial 234U/238U activity ratio of 1.6, determined by TIMS 230Th/U dating of younger soils in Midway Valley and assuming that this ratio remained constant. Corrected 206Pb/238U isochron ages are about 10 percent younger and yield a weighted average age of 1.9±0.2 Ma for the 5 samples of opal from the basal alluvium across much of Midway Valley. Because the erosional surface apparently is not offset across a number of bedrock faults, this U-Pb age for the overlying alluvium can constrain the most recent episode of faulting to be older than 1.9 million years.