Comment on: "Experimental evidence for the pressure dependence of fission track annealing in apatite" by A.S. Wendt et al. [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 201 (2002) 593-607]

Abstract

The pressure experiments reported by Wendt et al. are cast in such a way as to question the fundamental basis underpinning apatite fission track thermochronology, implying the possibility of a large systematic error in previous interpretations. We find however, that the study is severely compromised by fundamental errors in both experimental design and execution, as well as lacking in consideration of a substantial body of previous work in the area of fission track annealing studies. Wendt et al. have not attempted to extrapolate the results of their experiments to geologically relevant heating times and temperatures. This has been the fundamental test that all previous annealing models have..