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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 95, No. 12 (December 2011), P. 2107–2111.

Copyright copy2011. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/03241110115

Dating petroleum emplacement by illite 40Ar/39Ar laser stepwise heating: Discussion

Norbert Clauer,1 Fred Jourdan,2 Horst Zwingmann3

1Laboratoire d'Hydrologie et de Geochimie de Strasbourg (CNRS/UdS) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Universite de Strasbourg, 1 rue Blessig, 67084 Strasbourg, France; [email protected]
2Western Australian Argon Isotope Facility, Department of Applied Geology and John deLaeter Centre, Curtin University, G.P.O. Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia; [email protected]
3CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) Earth Science and Resource Engineering, P.O. Box 1130, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Isotopic dating of diagenetic processes in relation to hydrocarbon charge in buried sedimentary sequences is of importance to the oil industry. Yun et al. recently published in the AAPG Bulletin (v. 94, no. 6, p. 759–771) on that topic a study entitled, “Dating Petroleum Emplacement by Illite 40Ar/39Ar Laser Stepwise Heating Technique.” This study raises questions about basic aspects of 40Ar/39Ar dating fine-grained authigenic clay minerals, describes flawed methodology, and ignores important previous work. As isotopic dating of diagenetic processes may interest readers of the AAPG Bulletin that are not necessarily specialists in either isotopic geochronology or clay mineralogy, it appeared necessary to comment on both the technical aspects and the scientific interpretations of this study. We discuss especially the fact that the authors discarded 39Ar recoil followed by an evaluation of its impact on the results and the interpretations.

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