Advances and Prospects of Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology

In recent years a lot of apatite fission track thermochronology researches have been made in different areas.The paper introduces some new advances of apatite fission track thermochronology,including the mechanism of apatite fission track annealing,annealing model and modeling methods, and its latest applications to exhumation of orogenic belts, thermotectonic-denudation imaging, landscape evolution and mineralization. And the existence main problems of annealing kinetics, data interpreting and application of apatite fission track thermochronology were analyzed. At last, the authors indicate that deep-seated annealing mechanisms, new application field, automatic technology and maneuverability are some new orientations of apatite fission track thermochronology researches.