Technical note: Geodynamic Thermochronology (GDTchron) – A Python package to calculate low-temperature thermochronometric ages from geodynamic numerical models

Abstract

Low-temperature thermochronology provides a powerful means of extracting quantitative information on the thermal evolution of different tectonic settings from rocks exposed at the surface of the Earth. Geodynamic numerical models enable tracking the entire thermal structure of simulated tectonic settings throughout their evolution. Despite the highly complementary nature of these two approaches, few geodynamic modeling studies have used the thermal information in models to predict thermochronometric ages as a means of comparing model results with observational data. Here, we present Geodynamic Thermochronology (GDTchron): an open-source Python package designed to forward model large numbers of low-temperature thermochronometric ages from time–temperature paths output by geodynamic numerical models. This package uses existing techniques to estimate apatite (U-Th)/He, apatite fission track, and zircon (U-Th)/He ages from time–temperature paths in a parallelized workflow that enables faster computation on multicore processors and high-performance computing systems. The workflow is built on typical output files from geodynamic models containing particle location, time, and temperature, and we use an interpolation scheme to allow new particles to inherit the thermal histories of their nearest neighbors. GDTchron can be applied to any tectonic setting, though for results to be comparable to nature, geodynamic models should carefully account for erosion and sedimentation. We demonstrate the functionality of this software with a highly simplified geodynamic model of exhumation and a more complicated model of rift-inversion orogenesis with the aim of encouraging community participation in broadening future development.