An EARTHTIME/EarthChem-sponsored workshop focusing on data acquisition, manipulation, processing, visualization, and archiving for high-precision U-Pb and Ar-Ar geochronology as well as discussion of progress in the geochronological aspects of EARTHTIME will be held May 1-3 2009 in Denver, Colorado.  The workshop will involve discussion of all sources of error, error propagation strategies, data reduction algorithms and software, data acquisition methods and strategies, and archiving in community databases, emphasizing consensus on common protocols and maximization of data utility.  This step will be essential for accurate inter-laboratory and inter-technique comparisons.  

The Ar-Ar and U-Th-Pb groups will have separate discussions with plenary sessions for common issues and a full discussion of intercomparison of the two methods and summary post-mortems on the current interlaboratory exercises.  The groups will also evaluate methods of data submission to the EarthChem database for geochronology.

The workshop is planned for two full days and will involve hands-on experience with existing software, as well as providing input for further software development. U-Pb_Redux will be demonstrated for review by the community. Data upload to the EarthChem database will also be demonstrated, as well as the use of SESAR for acquiring unique sample identifiers. The two most commonly used Ar-Ar data reduction programs (ArArCalc, Mass Spec) will be demonstrated and discussed with possible movement towards seamless compatibility. Ken Ludwig will lead a discussion of future support and possible platform migration of ISOPLOT.