Abstract. We present a new model for the etching and revelation of confined fission tracks in apatite based on variable along-track velocity, vT(x). Insights from step-etching experiments theoretical energy loss rates fragments suggest two end-member structures: constant-core, with central zone constant rate that then falls off toward track tips; linear, which fall linearly midpoint to tips. Fr...

The location, nature, and size distribution of uranium-rich grains in sediment layers can be identified by sunbursts of etched particle tracks if each sample is pressed against a track detector, next irradiated with thermal neutrons, and the detectors then chemically etched to reveal fission tracks. The total track abundance from the sample is a measure of the 235U content; hence, if the bulk u...

Abstract The 350 km-long Adjara-Trialeti fold-and-thrust belt of southwestern Georgia is the result structural inversion a continental back-arc basin developed in Paleogene on upper (Eurasian) plate northward subducting northern branch Neotethys. Low-temperature thermochronological data [fission-track and (U-Th)/He analyses apatite] from sedimentary plutonic rocks provide robust constraints tec...