Discordance of the U-Pb system in detrital zircons: Implication for provenance studies of sedimentary rocks

Ion probe analysis of multiple spots within a single zircon crystal and calculation of an internal isochron can potentially eliminate problems associated with discordance, but this is a time consuming approach. Comparison of internal isochron ages for zircons generated by multiple ion probe intra-grain zircon analyses from a sample of psammite within the Dalradian Supergroup of Scotland with a data set from the same sample based on single grain ion probe analysis using various filtering methods suggests good agreement between the two approaches particularly when filtering is based on the probability of concordance. However, when precise information is required, such as the age of the youngest zircon grains so as to accurately constrain the maximum depositional age of the strata, then multiple analyses of individual zircon grains may be required.