Detrital zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronometry in the sedimentary basin and its geological significance

Abstract:

The zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronometry has been used as a thermal indicator to study thermal history of the deep sedimentary basin at high temperature. The closure temperature and age of helium are important parameters for the zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronometry. In this paper, the zircon He closure temperature and its influence factors were studied by establishing the evolutionary pattern between zircon He ages and zircon burial depth based on examined zircon He ages of natural borehole samples obtained from the Cenozoic strara in the sedimentary basin. The results show that the zircon He closure temperature of natural samples in the sedimentary basin is approcimately 195℃, higher than the result (183℃) obtain from the thermal simulation experiments. The high He closure temperature resulted from long term radiation damage accumulation and high effective uranium. We also point out that grain radius, He corrected parameter, effective uranium concentration, radiation damage and radiogenic ⁴He concentration have apparent influence on the zircon He ages. This study is a revaluation of the conventional zircon He closure temperature. Thus, properly understanding the zircon He ages, closure temperature, and its influence factors, zircon (U-Th)/He dating can provide the true explanation of the testing zircon He ages, and has a great guiding significance in the studying of the evolution of source rocks and the process of hydrocarbon accumulation in the deep sedimentary basin.