方解石脉ESR定年信号和测量条件的研究

方解石脉是与断裂构造相关并在基岩区断裂带中常见的物质。方解石脉的定年有时对研究基岩区断裂活动时代具有重要的意义。方解石脉ESR测年是目前采用的测年方法之一,但是对于方解石脉的ESR信号特征及其测量条件目前尚没有定论。文中研究样品采自云南洱海海东断裂带中。根据对样品的初步研究认为,方解石脉人工辐照时易产生不稳定的短寿命信号,在测量之前至少将其在室温条件下存放5d。天然方解石脉中一般具有多个ESR信号,其中g=2.0040和g=2.0023信号对吸收剂量具有良好的响应关系,可以用于测年。这两个信号的增长曲线表明至少在1500Gy剂量范围内呈线性增长。人工给定已知剂量方法表明,要获得可靠的古剂量,g=2.0040和g=2.0023的信号所选择的微波功率是不同的。对于g=2.0040信号,测量的微波功率应在0.8或2mW;而g=2.0023信号,微波功率应选择2或5mW     

古湖岸堤沉积物石英光释光测年研究:以中国东北兴凯湖为例

古湖岸堤是湖面波动的地貌证据,可以用来重建古湖泊演化.古湖岸堤沉积物的准确测年是应用此地貌学证据重建湖泊演化的关键.以我国兴凯湖最低一级湖岸堤——大湖岗为研究对象,采用石英小片技术,应用单片再生剂量法(SAR)对大湖岗2个不同位置的剖面风成砂质沉积物(共13个样品)进行了光释光(OSL)测年.样品石英组分的光释光衰减曲线特征表明,样品的释光信号以快组分为主,预热坪和实验室剂量恢复实验结果表明,SAR法可以用来测量兴凯湖古湖岸堤样品的等效剂量.通过分析样品等效剂量分布情况和比较3种年龄模型(平均值模型、中值模型和最小值模型),认为大湖岗湖滨砂质沉积物在沉积埋藏前石英光释光信号晒退完全,获得的OSL年龄是可信的.年代结果表明,大湖岗采自不同位置的2个剖面的年代范围一致,且各个剖面中所有年代均随地层顺序变化;另外,2个样品的OSL年龄与同层位的炭屑样品的14C年代结果在误差范围内一致,进一步表明OSL测年技术可以获得可靠的兴凯湖岸堤沉积物的年龄.尽管与前人使用热释光(TL)测年方法研究大湖岗形成年代有较大差别,本文认为兴凯湖最低一级古湖岸堤——大湖岗形成于距今约1.24-0.50 ka.     

细颗粒石英光释光测年:简单多片再生法

文中报道了细颗粒石英光释光测年中测量等效剂量的一种可靠技术——简单多片再生法。该技术的核心是引入单片再生法中试验剂量校正感量变化的功能,即在天然和再生多测片光释光信号测量后,再对各测片辐照以试验剂量,利用试验剂量的光释光信号响应对各测片归一化,同时校正可能发生的感量变化。从方法学上,这一技术具有以下优点1)试验剂量可以校正各测片的感量变化;2)对各测片归一化,克服了实验数据分散度的问题;3)通过对比简单多片再生法与单片再生法在测年中的表现,证实简单多片再生法可以克服单片再生法中可能发生的光释光信号的积累问题。最后,文中通过测定参考年龄样品,即洛川剖面末次冰期马兰黄土(L1)的开始堆积年龄,验证了简单多片再生法的可靠性,即在提高测量准确度和精度的同时,更节约时间     

电子自旋共振（ESR）测年方法在我国早更新世考古遗址年代学研究中的应用探索

对于东亚地区早更新世考古遗址的研究,可以帮助我们理解人类最早何时走出非洲,以及他们是如何在亚洲大陆生存与演化等一系列问题.一些在我国境内发现的最早期的人类活动证据,目前并没有被国际学术界普遍接受,在很大程度上归因于这些早期遗址年代的不确定.由于测年时段和测年对象的限制,这些早更新世遗址中的大多数无法采用诸如钾氩/氩氩测年法等经典的同位素测年方法进行年代学研究.电子自旋共振（ESR）方法是一种常用的早期遗址考古测年方法,其中ESR骨化石测年可以应用于早更新世遗址的年代学研究.由于骨化石的体系不封闭,所以在计算ESR年代时需要考虑铀在化石样品中的加入过程.     

新型气氡仪三种常用校准方法的差异性比测分析

为保证气氡测量结果准确性和可靠性,需对测氡仪器进行定期校准。应用目前我国地震系统内常用的三种校准方法：标准仪器校准法、RN-FD循环式氡气源校准法及固体氡气源校准法,对入网新型气氡仪进行校准方法比测。得出结果认为：循环式常压取源方式更接近新型数字化氡观测仪器的正常工作方式;标准仪器校准法是目前正在使用的几种校准方法中系统误差最小、校准效率最高、维护成本最低的方法;RN-FD循环式氡气源校准法和固体氡气源校准法均为标准物质传递方法,该方法存在诸多困难及不便(如放射性固体源运输、人员技术及环保监管等)影响仪器校准的及时性。通过分析这三种校准方法在原理、使用操作方法等方面的差异,讨论它们对校准结果准确度的影响,为新型仪器的校准操作规程(规范)的编写及实施提供参考。     

中国大陆古地震研究的关键技术与案例解析(4)——古地震定年技术的样品采集和事件年代分析

古地震资料要在地震中长期预报和地震危险性评估中发挥更重要的作用,关键在于减小古地震研究中的不确定性,古地震发生年代的确定是最大限度减小不确定性的关键因素之一。要得到尽可能接近真实的古地震事件年代,除正确地选择测年方法外,正确的采样方法和事件年代确定技术尤为关键。在几种主要测年技术中,优先采集碳十四(14C)测年样品、释光样品采集搬运过程有充分"退火"条件的物质、铍十(10Be)样品应采集各种干扰因素较少的样品、依据构造运动属性选择适宜的采样位置、用序列样品限制事件年代等,是正确采集测定事件年代样品的技术要点;用地层年代限制的事件发生年代宜用区间值、有多个可信样品年龄值时应用年轻样品的年代数据,是确定单一地点事件发生年代的基本原则;而包括逐次限定法、Z统计法、年龄分布曲线重叠法、事件窗法、年龄分布曲线权重重叠法在内的时间对比法,以及空间对比法是断层或断层段多个测年地点事件年代估计的主要分析方法。     

地震氡观测计量溯源初步探究

根据氡观测仪的氡室校准和氡气固体源校准两种校准方式的实验结果, 讨论了使用标准仪器校准氡观测仪器的可靠性问题。 用国际公认的计量传递仪器AlphaGUARD P2000Pro或AlphaGUARD P2000F测氡仪作为氡气溯源仪器, 对九江地震台FD-125氡钍分析器的三个闪烁室进行了氡室校准、 氡气固体源校准和仪器校准三种方法实验, 得到标准仪器校准、 氡气固体源校准得出K值相对氡室校准结果偏差均小于6%, 结果表明, 三种方法的校准结果均符合目前氡观测计量溯源技术要求, 能达到与国家氡计量刻度相统一目的。     

西南天山明尧勒背斜河流阶地沉积物的光释光测年

晚第四纪细颗粒河流阶地沉积物的准确定年是当前光释光测年研究中的一个难点。利用简单多片再生法(SMAR)、单片再生法(SAR)等对新疆西南天山喀什前陆盆地明尧勒背斜喀浪勾律克河阶地沉积物样品的细颗粒石英光释光(BLSL)信号、混合矿物红外释光信号(IRSL)和红外后蓝光释光信号([Post-IR]OSL)进行测量。通过对比同一样品的细颗粒石英BLSL、混合矿物IRSL和[Post-IR]OSL的等效剂量值,认为细颗粒石英简单多片再生法是河流阶地沉积物释光测年最为适用的方法之一。对于细颗粒混合矿物而言,由于长石矿物的异常衰退,对于等效剂量De>70Gy的样品,其IRSL等效剂量值均偏小;其[Post-IR]OSL等效剂量值仍需慎重使用。通过对同一样品细颗粒石英多个测片的单片再生法等效剂量值分布以及简单多片再生法多个测片校正后天然释光信号强度的一致性判断,认为样品LEDL03-87q,LEDL03-86q和LEDL04-54q在沉积时的光晒退是不均匀的,采用最小等效剂量组分来计算沉积年龄     

Daybreak厚源α-计数仪的标定及测量影响因素的初步研究

年剂量测量是释光和电子自旋共振测年的关键之一。厚源α-计数仪(简称TSAC)是年剂量测量中的常用仪器。通过不同标准源的标定对比实验,对美国Daybreak公司582,583型低本底厚源α-计数仪的高压值(HV)和积分甄别器阈值(DISC)进行了标定。同时,对测量过程中的诸多影响因素如被测样品的氡逃逸、粒度、含水量、颜色以及ZnS闪烁屏的密度、测量时间等开展了初步的实验研究,并根据实验结果提出了针对本型号仪器在实际测量时的改进措施,以提高厚源α-计数仪的测量精度     

汶川8.0级地震小鱼洞地表破裂带古地震事件的光释光测年

小鱼洞地震地表破裂带罗元村探槽剖面揭示了汶川8.0级大地震之前的1次同等规模的古地震事件.文中对采自小鱼洞破裂带罗元村古地震探槽的7个冲洪积物样品进行了细颗粒石英简单多片再生法和单测片再生法光释光测年研究.LED08-212样品SAR法预热坪实验表明预热温度坪区间为180～240℃,在此温度下热转移量小于等效剂量的1%...     

A Bayesian hierarchical age model for optical dating of single grains of quartz

In optical dating, the last time that a sample of sediment was exposed to sunlight is determined by dividing its equivalent dose (D_e) by the dose rate. For single-grain dating, the sample D_e is based on the statistical analysis of the distribution of D_e values estimated for individual grains, whereas the dose rate is usually determined from measurements of the environmental radioactivity of the bulk sample, together with allowances for radiation sources internal to the grains and cosmic rays. Conventionally, the D_e and dose rate are measured and analysed separately to produce an estimate of the depositional age of a sample, but this approach may result in loss of information because distributions of single-grain D_e values are influenced by several factors. Existing statistical models do not incorporate all the key information contributing to age estimation, such as the pattern and scale of dispersion of single-grain D_e values and dose rates, the associated measurement uncertainties, the effect of natural variability among grains, and the outlier probabilities of D_e and dose rate estimates. Here we propose an empirical Bayesian hierarchical age model (BHAM) for optical dating of quartz samples that incorporates the above information to estimate their depositional ages. The BHAM is based on the implementation of standardised growth curve and L_nT_n methods to integrate information on the full distribution of single-grain D_e values, sources of measurement uncertainty, beta-dose heterogeneity (observed or modelled), and detection of outliers. We present the results of validation tests using data sets of optically stimulated luminescence measurements and dose rates obtained for quartz samples dated previously from Denisova Cave (Russia) and for simulated samples. We conclude that the BHAM represents a robust and flexible approach to dealing with data for single grains of quartz within a Bayesian hierarchical framework and is suitable for application to sediments deposited in a variety of depositional settings.     

RESEARCH PROGRESS ON LUMINESCENCE DATING OF ROCK SURFACES AND ITS APPLICATION

There are many examples of exposed or buried rock surfaces whose age is of interest to geologists and archaeologists. Luminescence dating is a well-established method of absolute chronology which has been successfully applied to a wide range of fine-grained sediments from hundreds of years to several hundred thousand years. Optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been recently proposed as a new method to date these rock surfaces (Laskariset al., 2011; Sohbatiet al., 2012a; Chapotet al., 2012; Pedersonet al., 2014; Sohbatiet al., 2015; Freieslebenet al., 2015). The basic principle is that luminescence signal of rock surface will soon decay when the rock is exposed to sunlight. When the rock surface is turned to be buried side, the OSL signal begins to accumulate again. With the variation of residual luminescence with depth, it is possible to estimate exposure and burial history of the rock. This article describes briefly the different luminescence dating methods for rock surfaces, its progress, application examples and present problems. For instance, Sohbatiet al. (2011) studied the depth dependence of the bleaching of the IRSL signal from granitic rocks, Laskaris and Liritzis (2011) proposed a mathematical function to describe the attenuation of daylight into rock surfaces, Sohbatiet al. (2012a) developed their model to include the environmental dose rate, Sohbatiet al. (2012b) overcame the problem of parameter estimation by using a known-age road-cut sample for calibration, Sohbatiet al. (2012c) further developed the OSL surface exposure dating model by including the simultaneous effect of daylight bleaching and environmental dose rate, and so on. These studies indicate that OSL dating method for rock surface can be applied widely to studies of geological and geomorphological evolution, archeology and Quaternary tectonic activity.     

Effects of grain size on quartz ESR dating of Ti–Li center in fluvial and lacustrine sediments

The electron spin resonance (ESR) dating method has been introduced into the Quaternary chronology for nearly 40 years and has been successfully used for dating of fluvial and lacustrine sediments. In order to evaluate the possible effect of the sediment grain size on the dating estimate, the parallel ESR dating testing was carried out on quartz grains of five different size fractions ranging from 50 to 450 μm extracted from the same fluvial and lacustrine sediment collected close to the M/B boundary at the Donggutuo section, Nihewan Basin, China. The results show that equivalent doses and associated ages vary significantly. However the beta irradiation dose rate of the grains with different sizes accounts for only about 6% of the total deviation of the dating results. At the same time, the sensitivity of quartz Ti–Li center was calculated based on the additional irradiation. It shows that the larger grains are more sensitive than the smaller ones, which can leads to higher saturate ESR intensity and less equivalent dose. The variations of the sensitivity of quartz Ti–Li center of the grains with different sizes are responsible for the primary deviation of the dating results. The results also suggest that 100–150 μm grain size fraction would be priority size for the ESR dating of quartz Ti–Li center on fluvial and lacustrine sediments.     

Two types of CO2− radicals threaten the fundamentals of ESR dating of tooth enamel

In ESR dating of tooth enamel, dose values are usually obtained from powdered samples. It has been shown that the qualitative response of enamel powder to environmental and laboratory dosing is closely similar, thus apparently validating ESR protocols for dose estimation. When working on human fossils, their cultural and scientific value prevents the powdering of any samples. Measurements are carried out on enamel fragments instead. In fragments, natural and laboratory irradiations cause significantly different ESR responses. These can be attributed to two distinct CO₂⁻ radicals, one with apparently axial symmetry (orientated) and one that has no preferential orientation (non-orientated). The spectra of the naturally irradiated samples investigated here show a mix of about 90% of the orientated and about 10% of the non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals. In contrast, laboratory irradiation induces a mix of about 60% orientated and 40% non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals. Heating experiments show that the non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals are significantly less stable than the orientated. This fact on its own would have serious implications for dose estimations, implying massive underestimations. It turns out, however, that with the heating induced decline of the non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals, a larger number of orientated CO₂⁻ radicals is created. It is presently unclear whether these two processes are directly connected. In spite of very large internal reorganisations during these processes, powder spectra are only little affected by heating, because the powder spectra of both CO₂⁻ radicals are closely similar.The maximum differences that are observed on powder spectra in post-irradiation heating experiments, are in the range of 3%, dose values may be affected by a similar amount. However, when using preheating steps, which would occur when applying post-irradiation heating protocols to single aliquots, the thermal behaviour of the irradiated samples is quite different. While the annihilation of the non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals has about the same decay rate in preheated and non-preheated samples, the increase of the orientated CO₂⁻ radicals is less pronounced in the preheated samples. As a result, overall intensity changes become critically dependent on the preheating times. The observed increase in signal intensity is in contrast to long-term fading experiments that showed that the ESR intensity of irradiated samples actually decreased over 6–12 years after laboratory irradiation. In view of this complexity and the small amount of quantitative information available, it is presently not possible to recommend any pre- or post-irradiation protocols.The good news for ESR dating is that any systematic errors introduced by a different mix of orientated and non-orientated CO₂⁻ radicals in the natural and irradiation spectra seem relatively small (<5%). At present, the most reliable way for the dose estimation of fragments seems to measure the samples rotating around the three principal axes and to merge the spectra to produce a powder-equivalent spectrum and use this for the construction of the dose response curve.     

Violet stimulated luminescence as an alternative for dating complex colluvial sediments in the Atacama Desert

Luminescence dating has become a key tool in studies of the Quaternary. The typically stable luminescence response of quartz grains and the absence of a significant internal dose, make quartz minerals the preferred dosimeter for monitoring the burial dose in sediments. Unfortunately, the reliability of conventional OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating, based on blue stimulation, can be compromised when the luminescence decay is not dominated by a rapidly decaying and stable part of the luminescence signal (i.e. the fast component). On the other hand, standard methods in luminescence dating are limited to ages of a few hundred kiloyears. In this study, violet stimulated luminescence (VSL) has been used as a means to overcome both problems, applied to a series of colluvial deposits in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Quartz from this region, characterized by poor blue-OSL response, showed a reproducible and stable VSL signal capable of recovering given doses up to ∼500 Gy and a saturation dose twice as high as conventional OSL. The VSL response from these samples has been studied in detail and the estimated ages have been compared with an already established chronology for the same site, based on IRSL of potassium feldspar single grains. Results agree for the dose range of the profile studied, ∼100–250 Gy, equivalent to ages of 29–79 ka confirming the suitability of VSL for dating sedimentary quartz with unreliable blue-OSL response and to extend the age range of conventional OSL dating.     

Infrared stimulated luminescence and radiofluorescence dating of aeolian sediments from Hungary

Anomalous fading of the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signal from the polymineral fine-grain and K-feldspar fractions of aeolian sediments from Hungary has been studied. The samples in this study have previously been dated using the multiple aliquot additive dose (MAAD) protocol to measure the IRSL signal. The IRSL measurements using MAAD were conducted ～4 weeks after the irradiation, making it difficult to assess to what extent these age estimates were affected by anomalous fading. In this study, equivalent doses were obtained using the single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol. The fading rate for each sample was calculated using the different IRSL components and different parts of the decay curve. For each sample, the middle part of the decay curve always showed a lower fading rate than the initial part of the decay curve. The difference between the fading rates for different parts of the decay curve was greater for the K-feldspars than for the polymineral fine grains. Fading corrected ages were calculated by integrating both the initial and the middle part of the decay curve. These ages were compared with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from quartz, infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) ages obtained from K-feldspars and also with independent ages, provided by radiocarbon dating of shells and charcoal, and uranium-series dating of travertine.     

Preliminary ESR dating results on loess samples from the loess–paleosol sequence at Luochuan, Central Loess Plateau, China

The quartz Al centre has been used in pioneering studies for ESR dating of sediments. Acceptable age estimates could be obtained for a range of deposits using this centre after estimating the residual level. To inspect the feasibility and reliability of ESR dating of windblown sediments, six loess samples from the loess–paleosol sequences of Luochuan profile on central Loess Plateau, China, were dated by ESR with regeneration method using the quartz Al centre measured at 115 K. The samples were exposed to sunlight for 430 h. Only about 25% signal intensity was bleached. According to our preliminary results, ESR age estimates increased with the depth along the loess profile, however, the ESR age of each sample is only about a half of the reference age of the corresponding strata. For example, the ESR age of a sample from the top of L₈ loess near B/M boundary (a known age of 780 ka) yields an age of only 385 ka. It seems that ESR dating using quartz Al centre with dose regeneration protocol may have the potential for dating of loess and other aeolian deposits, but the studies on the nature of the quartz Al centre and experiment protocols have to be studied further.     

A test case for anomalous fading correction in IRSL dating

Infrared-stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating of feldspars has the potential to date deposits beyond the age range of quartz optical (OSL) dating. Successful application of feldspar IRSL dating is, however, often precluded due to anomalous-fading, the tunnelling of electrons from one defect site to another. In this paper we test procedures proposed for anomalous-fading correction by comparing feldspar IRSL and quartz OSL dating results on a suite of samples from continental deposits from the southeastern Netherlands. We find that even after anomalous-fading correction IRSL ages underestimate the burial age of the deposits and argue that this may be a consequence of a dependency of anomalous fading rate on the dose rate and on the absorbed dose.     

The generation of condensation nuclei by ionising radiation

Summary The production of condensation nuclei by the irradiation of filtered nuclei-free air by X-rays, alpha particles and beta particles is described. It is found that nuclei are created in large numbers by such irradiation and that there appears to be a threshold radiation dose at which the nucleus concentration is increased by a factor of more than a hundred.The effect of varying sulphur dioxide content of the irradiated air has been investigated and for concentrations of between one and ten milligrams per cubic metre of air there is some proportionality between the sulphur dioxide content of the air and the nucleus concentration produced by a given radiation dose.It is shown, however, that sulphur dioxide cannot be exclusively responsible for the generation of condensation nuclei by irradiation of filtered air and other possible agents and mechanisms are suggested.     

Using X-rays as an irradiation source for direct ESR dating of fossil teeth

In this paper we have tested the potential application of X-rays as an irradiation source in Electron Spin Resonance dating of tooth enamel. A range of modern and fossil samples were used to assess the feasibility of dose estimations using this alternative irradiator. The use of a known laboratory additive dose allows the calculation of an absorption equivalent coefficient between gamma-rays and X-rays. The results show that equivalent doses obtained with gamma-rays on fossil powder enamel was frequently less than the doses obtained on fragments using only X-rays. This agrees with other studies that gamma irradiation can lead to age underestimation problems, and also indicates that X-ray sources could be more suitable for ESR dating. Here, we show that testing penetration attenuation for each individual irradiation source is required to accurately estimate the maximum enamel thickness and produce reliable protocols. We conclude that X-rays are an alternative irradiation source for ESR dating protocols, however, limitations remain in particular with alpha efficiency.