Since 1980, progress in research on the fission-track dating method and its applications to earth and related sciences has been evaluated during an International Workshop that takes place every four years. This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the International Workshop held in Gent (Belgium) from 26 to 30 August, 1996. Primarily the articles will be of interest to the active fission-track scientists but the combination of research papers and critical reviews that is presented may also provide the interested non-specialist reader with a valuable insight into the fission-track dating method and its role in the earth sciences.
This reader will undoubtedly note the evolution that the method has undergone during the last fifteen years, from a technique that was debated in most of its facets to an established chronometric tool with unique qualities in geothermochronology.

Inhalt
Section I: Track Fundamentals, Dating Methodology and Age Calibration.- High-resolution microscopy of latent tracks induced by high-energy heavy ions.- Zeta: the ultimate solution to fission-track analysis calibration or just an interim measure?.- The parameters that govern the accuracy of fission-track age determinations: a re-appraisal.- A re-investigation of the geometry factors for fission-track dating of apatite, sphene and zircon.- A new U doped glass certified by the European Commission for the calibration of fission-track dating.- Section II: Track Annealing.- Uranium-235 fission track annealing in minerals of the apatite group: an experimental study.- Mathematical convection methodology using Bertagnolli and Laslett fission track annealing laws.- Revised annealing kinetics of fission tracks in zircon and geological implications.- Section III: Thermochronology.- Divining burial and thermal histories from indicator data: application & limitations.- Apatite fission track thermochronology of Paleozoic sandstones and the Hill-intrusion, Northern Linksrheinisches Schiefergebirge, Germany.- Evidence for the unroofing history of Hercynian granitoids in central Portugal derived from late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary zircons.- Apatite fission-track thermochronology of the uppermost tectonic unit of Crete, Greece: implications for the post-Eocene tectonic evolution of the Hellenic Subduction System.- Post-orogenic cooling history of Eastern South Australia from apatite FT thermochronology.- Cooling and denudation history of Western Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, based on apatite fission-tracks.- Multiple thermal evolution of Oates Land (Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica): evidence from apatite fission track analysis.- Effects of surface cooling on apatite fission-track data: evidence for Miocene climatic change, North Slope, Alaska.- Geomorphic factors in the interpretation of fission-track data.- Section IV: Glass Studies.- Potential glass age standards for fission-track dating: an overview.- Age determination of obsidian source samples from North Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.- Fission track dating and provenience of archaeological obsidian artefacts in Colombia and Ecuador.- Technical Note: A better way to separate apatite from zircon using constriction tubes.- Author Index.