Robust isochron calculation

Abstract

The standard classical statistics approach to isochron calculation assumes that the distribution of uncertainties on the data arising from isotopic analysis is strictly Gaussian. This effectively excludes datasets that have more scatter from consideration, even though many appear to have age significance. A new approach to isochron calculations is developed in order to circumvent this problem, requiring only that the central part of the uncertainty distribution of the data defines a "spine"in the trend of the data. This central spine can be Gaussian but this is not a requirement. This approach significantly increases the range of datasets from which age information can be extracted but also ..