Effect of α-damage on fission-track annealing in zircon

The thermal stability of confined fission-track lengths in four zircon samples having different spontaneous track densities (i.e., different amounts of ??-damage) has been studied by one-hour isochronal annealing experiments. The thermal stability of spontaneous track lengths is independent of initial spontaneous track density. The thermal stability of induced track lengths in pre-annealed zircon, however, is significantly higher than that of spontaneous track lengths. The results indicate that the presence of ??-damage lowers the thermal stability of fission-tracks in zircon.