Routine generation of large Rb-Sr age datasets has been limited by the time-consuming requirement of chromatographic isolation of Sr from Rb to avoid the isobaric interference of
87
Rb
+
on
87
Sr
+
. Recently, direct measurement of interference-free
87
Sr/
86
Sr has become possible with the advent of tandem quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS). Here, we describe a method that uses ICP-MS/MS to measure
87
Sr/
86
Sr combined with a standard addition calibration for precise determination of Rb/Sr, allowing efficient generation of Rb-Sr ages. The method is demonstrated on a suite of ~50 to 90 Myrs (million years) old celadonite samples that are dated with age uncertainties typically of ±2 to 5 Myrs provided the sample Rb/Sr is >2. A method to separate the phyllosilicate fraction from the bulk sample, because it commonly has a higher Rb/Sr more suitable for dating, using differential settling is also described.
Differential settling allows high Rb/Sr phyllosilicates to be separated from other phases
ICP-MS/MS allows
87
Sr/
86
Sr measurement without chromatographic isolation of Sr
+
from Rb
+
Single-spike standard addition ICP-MS was used for Rb/Sr measurement
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