Abstract:Conducting simultaneous U-Pb and fission-track analysis on the same mineral crystal has emerged as an important and rapidly developing dating method in recent years. This technique effectively constrains the thermal history of geological bodies from high-temperature crystallization to low-temperature cooling, representing a significant frontier in thermochronology. Based on LA-ICP-MS technology, and building upon the established zircon U-Pb dating procedure, this study systematically established an in-situ microanalysis method for double U-Pb and fission-track dating of apatite, following three main steps: sample preparation, track counting, and U-Pb isotope analysis. The U-Pb ages obtained for the three zircon standards—Tanz, Ple?ovice and Qinghu—are 568.4 ± 1.9 Ma, 334.4 ± 1.4 Ma, and 158.85 ± 0.71 Ma, respectively. While analyses of three international apatite standards with varying common Pb contents—Durango, Mount Dromedary, and Fish Canyon Tuff—yielded U-Pb lower intercept ages of 31.7 ± 2.2 Ma, 101.1 ± 2.1 Ma, and 27.4 ± 4.2 Ma, and fission-track central ages of 31.15 ± 1.00 Ma, 98.4 ± 2.4 Ma, and 27.29 ± 1.34 Ma, respectively. These results are consistent with recommended reference values within error, fully validating the accuracy and reliability of the established experimental procedure. The method developed in this study provides robust technical support for fundamental applied research—such as reconstructing orogenic belt evolution, basin provenance analysis, landscape evolution, ore deposit preservation and modification, and geodynamics—as well as for basic principles of thermochronology. In the future, an important direction will be to combine this method with in-situ (U-Th)/He dating to develop a more efficient and precise triple-dating approach on single crystals.