First-principles calibration of 38Ar tracers :implications for the ages of 40Ar/39Ar fluence monitors

We describe the analytical procedure for first-principles calibrations of 38Ar tracers in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. The ages of fluence monitors determined in the USGS laboratory and those reported in the literature differ by nearly 2 percent. However, the radiogenic-40Ar content of the primary mineral standard on which these ages are based has never been verified by first-principles measurement in other laboratories.