Analyst and etching protocol effects on the reproducibility of apatite confined fission-track length measurement, and ambient-temperature annealing at decadal timescales

Abstract

Previous inter-laboratory experiments on confined fission-track length measurements in apatite have consistently reported variation substantially in excess of statistical expectation. There are two primary causes for this variation: (1) differences in laboratory procedures and instrumentation, and (2) personal differences in perception and assessment between analysts. In this study, we narrow these elements down to two categories, etching procedure and analyst bias. We assembled a set of eight samples with induced tracks from four apatite varieties, initially irradiated between 2 and 43 years prior to etching. Two mounts were made containing aliquots of each sample to ensure identical etchin..