Pb-Pb zircon evaporation date for the Charleston Granite, South Australia: Comparisons with other Zircon Geochronology techniques

Abstract

In order to draw attention to the effectiveness of the single-grain evaporation technique of Pb-Pb zircon dating, this method has been applied to the Charleston Granite, a Mesoproterozoic granitoid from the South Australian Gawler Craton. The granite has previously been dated by both conventional and SHRIMP U-Pb techniques permitting comparison of the relative advantages of all three techniques. The date obtained by the evaporation technique for the crystallisation of the main magmatic phase of zircon was 1581 ± 4 Ma (2σ) which is the same within error as the SHRIMP result of 1585 ± 5 Ma (2σ).