Since Earth was formed, the abundance of daughter product isotopes has increased through time. For example, the ratio of lead of mass 206 relative to that of mass 204 has changed from an initial value of about 10 present when Earth was formed to an average value of about 19 in rocks at the terrestrial surface today. This is true because uranium is continuously creating more lead. A lead-rich mineral formed and isolated early in Earth’s history would have a low ratio of lead-206 to lead-204 because it did not receive subsequent additions by the radioactive decay of uranium. If Earth’s interior were a simple and homogeneous reservoir with respect to the ratio of uranium to lead, a single sample extracted by a volcano would provide the time of extraction. This would be called a model age. No parent-daughter value for a closed system is involved—rather, just a single isotopic measurement of lead viewed with respect to the expected evolution of lead on and in Earth. Unfortunately, the simplifying assumption in this case is not true, and lead model ages are approximate at best. Other model ages can be calculated using neodymium isotopes by extrapolating present values back to a proposed mantle-evolution line. In both cases, approximate ages that have a degree of validity with respect to one another result, but they are progressively less reliable as the assumptions on which the model is calculated are violated.

The progressive increase in the abundance of daughter isotopes over time gains a special significance where the parent element is preferentially enriched in either the mantle or the crust. For example, rubidium is concentrated in the crust, and as a result the present-day continents, subjected to weathering, have an elevated radiogenic to stable isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) of 0.720. In contrast, modern volcanic rocks in the oceans imply that much of the mantle has a value between about 0.703 and 0.705. Should crustal material be recycled, the strontium isotopic signature of the melt would be diagnostic.

Multiple ages for a single rock: the thermal effect

Fossils record the initial, or primary, age of a rock unit. Isotopic systems, on the other hand, can yield either the primary age or the time of a later event, because crystalline materials are very specific in the types of atoms they incorporate, in terms of both the atomic size and charge. An element formed by radioactive decay is quite different from its parent atom and thus is out of place with respect to the host mineral. All it takes for such an element to be purged from the mineral is sufficient heat to allow solid diffusion to occur. Each mineral has a temperature at which rapid diffusion sets in, so that, as a region is slowly heated, first one mineral and then another loses its daughter isotopes. When this happens, the isotopic “clock” is reset to zero, where it remains until the mineral cools below the blocking temperature. (This is the temperature below which a mineral becomes a closed chemical system for a specific radioactive decay series. Accordingly, the parent-daughter isotope ratio indicates the time elapsed since that critical threshold was reached.) In this case, the host mineral could have an absolute age very much older than is recorded in the isotopic record. The isotopic age then is called a cooling age. It is even possible by using a series of minerals with different blocking temperatures to establish a cooling history of a rock body—i.e., the times since the rock body cooled below successively lower temperatures. Such attempts can be complicated by the fact that a mineral may “grow” below the blocking temperature rather than simply become closed to isotopic migration. When this happens, the age has little to do with the cooling time. Another problem arises if a region undergoes a second reheating event. Certain minerals may record the first event, whereas others may record the second, and any suggestion of progressive cooling between the two is invalid. This complication does not arise when rapid cooling has occurred. Identical ages for a variety of minerals with widely different blocking temperatures is unequivocal proof of rapid cooling.

Fortunately for geologists, the rock itself records in its texture and mineral content the conditions of its formation. A rock formed at the surface with no indication of deep burial or new mineral growth can be expected to give a valid primary age by virtue of minerals with low blocking temperatures. On the other hand, low-blocking-point minerals from a rock containing minerals indicative of high temperatures and pressures cannot give a valid primary age. Such minerals would be expected to remain open until deep-level rocks of this sort were uplifted and cooled.

Given these complicating factors, one can readily understand why geochronologists spend a great deal of their time and effort trying to see through thermal events that occurred after a rock formed. The importance of identifying and analyzing minerals with high blocking temperatures also cannot be overstated. Minerals with high blocking temperatures that form only at high temperatures are especially valuable. Once formed, these minerals can resist daughter loss and record the primary age even though they remained hot (say, 700 °C [1,292 °F]) for a long time. The mineral zircon datable by the uranium-lead method is one such mineral. The mica mineral biotite dated by either the potassium-argon or the rubidium-strontium method occupies the opposite end of the spectrum and does not retain daughter products until cooled below about 300 °C (572 °F). Successively higher blocking temperatures are recorded for another mica type known as muscovite and for amphibole, but the ages of both of these minerals can be completely reset at temperatures that have little or no effect on zircon.

Taken in perspective, it is evident that many parts of Earth’s crust have experienced reheating temperatures above 300 °C—i.e., reset mica ages are very common in rocks formed at deep crustal levels. Vast areas within the Canadian Shield, which have identical ages reflecting a common cooling history, have been identified. These are called geologic provinces. By contrast, rocks that have approached their melting point—say, 750 °C (1,382 °F), which can cause new zircon growth during a second thermal event—are rare, and those that have done this more than once are almost nonexistent.