Method development in sedimentary provenance analysis

In a series of past and ongoing projects we develop and apply new or improved tools in sedimentary provenance analysis. This includes (i) the chemical and Raman-spectroscopic signatures of heavy minerals (e.g. rutile, garnet, epidote, titanite, Fe-Ti oxides) and their use as mineral tracers in sedimentary systems, (ii) U-Pb-He double dating of detrital zircon, (iii) the application of combined analytical techniques to single detrital minerals (e.g. double dating as well as combinations of chemical and radiometric techniques), (iv) geochemistry of sand-sized lithoclasts, (v) systematic interlaboratory tests for the nanlysis of heavy minerals, and (vi) automated Raman spectroscopy of heavy mineral assemblages in sand and silt-sized sediment.

Funding: various (continuously since 2004, ongoing)