RECENT PROGRESS IN FISSION-TRACK ANALYSIS AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN CHINA

Fission track analysis (FTA) has been developed and applied in China s ince 1985. Since then great efforts have been made on methodology and applications. In order to improve the accuracy of fission track dating , zeta calibration constants have been determined against NBS SRM 962 standard uranium glass and seven age standards. TINT method and silver coating were used to increase the density and contrast of confined sp ontaneous fission tracks on apatite. Based on the fanning model of fis sion track annealing for apatite presented by Laslett, G, M. , a forwa rd computer modeling of track shortening and age evolution was complet ed and an inverse method of modeling thermal histories from apatite fi ssion track data is underway. Apatite fission track data (age and trac k length), zircon age and forward modeling method have been used to re veal thermal and tectonic histories of several sedimentary basins and of a collision zone in China. In this presentation some progress in me thodology and application will be presented and discussed.