PICOs

Radioactive decay systems have been used to date rocks and minerals for over 100 years, but advances in the last 15-20 years have provided unprecedented improvements in our ability to constrain the rates and timescales of processes such as deformation, metamorphism and magmatism. The ultimate aim is to be able to answer questions such as "for how long was this shear zone active?", "what was the rate of deformation?", "how quickly did this metamorphic terrane heat up or cool down?", "was heating/cooling continuous or pulsed?", or "how long did it take this pluton to form?". This session aims to showcase the latest developments in chemical and textural techniques that allow ‘date’ to be linked to ‘process’ across all aspects of the evolution of the Earth’s lithosphere.