METHOD OF ROCK AGE ASSESSMENT Russian patent published in 1997 - IPC

FIELD: geochronology, estimation of rock and relative time of formation of ore beds. SUBSTANCE: specimen rock is polarized in a corona discharge; after polarization the spectrum of thermostimulated depolarization is measured at a rate of linear heating of 1 deg C/min. Then the specimen rock is annealed up to removal of the influence of natural irradiation of crystal. The annealed specimen rock is radiated by a fixed dose of ionizing radiation. Then it is polarized in a corona discharge, after that it is heated and the thermostimulated depolarization current is determined. According to the dependence of the thermostimulated depolarization current on the known dose of radiation, the point of the maximum of the previous (before annealing) measurement of the thermostimulated depolarization current us found, with the aid of which determined is the dose of irradiation accumulated by the specimen rock for the time of its stay in the earth; the dose of background radiation of surrounding rocks in the point of extraction of specimen crystals is determined and the rock age is calculated. EFFECT: enhanced accuracy. 1 tbl