Getting the right age? Testing luminescence dating of both quartz and feldspars against independent age controls

When luminescence dating was being developed much scientific effort was invested in showing it could achieve the correct ages, but this is now not routinely carried out for established protocols. This paper focussed on known age deposits from two case studies to explore whether correct ages were achieved. Case study 1 used the Storegga tsunami deposit dated to 8.2 ka sampled both horizontally and vertically and measured with OSL, IRSL and pIRIR. All results, for both quartz and feldspars, returned the correct age for the horizontal sample. Results from the vertical sample were more problematic with issues attributed to ongoing feldspar contamination of quartz and to beta heterogeneity. To agree with the independent age control single aliquot results required combination of >400 palaeodose replicates and in the case of IRSL the use of minimum age models. Measurements of feldspars at the single grain level using pIRIR measurements showed much improvement. Case study 2 used a barchan dune on the Tibet Plateau, China known to have been in position ∼10 years. Both quartz and feldspars returned young ages close to the true age, but the feldspar ages with brighter luminescence signal were more accurate once the luminescence signal to background ratio was optimised. On the basis of this study we advise against sampling vertically. We also recommend measuring feldspars with single grain pIRIR where possible, measuring >150 palaeodose replicates per sample and choosing feldspars rather than quartz for very young samples.     

The upper Pleistocene loess-palaeosol sequence at solonovka on the Cis-Altai plain,west Siberia – First luminescence dating results

Loess-palaeosol deposits of the Upper Pleistocene cover an extensive territory in the south of Western Siberia. Previously, most studies of loess-palaeosol sequences were carried out on river bank sections of the Ob river around Novosibirsk and upstream of this location (Ob Loess plateau); more recently, the focus of research has shifted towards the inner part of the Cis-Altai plain. Despite a good knowledge of the structure of regional loess-palaeosol sequences, there is a considerable lack of absolute dating beyond the radiocarbon limit. However, recent high resolution luminescence dating of a key Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) stratotype at Lozhok has identified the presence of a long hiatus in the deposit. As a result, the published ages of the main units have been underestimated, because the existing chronology is largely based on palaeosol counting. This new observation argues for an urgent re-evaluation of the accepted chronostratigraphy of Western Siberian Late Quaternary. Here we present the first luminescence data for a loess-palaeosol sequence of the Cis-Altai plain, at the Solonovka key section, using both quartz optically stimulated luminescence and feldspar post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence from 25 samples. The results show that the deposits were formed during the Late Pleistocene. The ∼1 m thick well-developed upper pedocomplex (PC1) has cryoturbation cracks filled with upper loess; this a characteristic regional benchmark for stratigraphic correlation. Two distinct hiatuses in sedimentation are found in the section: at the boundary of MIS 3/2, and after the formation of the MIS 5 Berdsk pedocomplex (PC3 and 2) until the beginning of the formation of MIS 3 deposits. The age of the thick PC3 palaeosol at the base of the section is determined as MIS 5, confirming evidence for the pronounced Kazantsevo (Eemian) interglacial in the loess-palaeosol record of Western Siberia. The results of our study emphasize the importance of understanding the palaeogeomorphological background to soil development, and the necessity of absolute chronology; we consider that the position of MIS 5 in the regional chronostratigraphic chart of South Western Siberia requires further study.     

Construction of a ‘global standardised growth curve’ (gSGC) for infrared stimulated luminescence dating of K-feldspar

We investigated the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) and post-infrared IRSL (pIRIR) signals emitted by K-feldspars from sedimentary samples from Asia, Europe and Africa using a single-aliquot multiple elevated temperature (MET) stimulation procedure. For separate aliquots of the same sample, we show that variation among the dose response curves (DRCs), or growth curves, constructed from the regenerative dose signal (L_x), the test dose signal (T_x, an indicator of luminescence sensitivity) and the sensitivity-corrected signal (L_x/T_x) can be largely eliminated by normalising the DRCs using one of the regenerative dose signals; we call this procedure ‘regenerative-dose normalisation’ or re-normalisation. Furthermore, for the MET-pIRIR signals measured at 250 °C, we find that different samples have re-normalised DRCs that follow the same growth function, despite the samples differing significantly in terms of their geological provenance, sedimentary context, equivalent dose (D_e) and luminescence sensitivity. This common feature offers the potential to establish a ‘global standardised growth curve’ (gSGC) for different samples of K-feldspar, and thereby enable D_e values to be estimated for a large number of single aliquots by projecting the re-normalised natural signals on to the gSGC. For the 18 samples investigated in this study, we find that D_e estimates obtained from the gSGC are consistent with those obtained using full single-aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) procedures for doses of up to ∼1600 Gy. The establishment of a gSGC would greatly reduce the time required to date older samples using K-feldspar, as regenerative doses of several hundreds to a few thousands of Gy are typically delivered to each aliquot in each SAR cycle.     

Testing the use of quartz ‘micro-hole’ photon-simulated luminescence for dating sediments from the central Lomonosov Ridge,Arctic Ocean

In the Arctic Ocean, direct dating methods are needed as an alternative to the radiocarbon (¹⁴C) method and to various indirect approaches for a longer stratigraphy. In past attempts to develop a luminescence sediment dating, the use of fine-silt (4–11 μm) mixture of quartz and feldspar grains from core tops has often produced large age overestimates by several ka. A recent application of micro-focused laser (‘micro-hole’) photon-stimulated luminescence (PSL) to medium-silt to fine-sand quartz grains (11–105 μm) from the core tops at the Alaska margin has been usefully accurate. To extend this approach to the central Arctic Ocean and to a larger grain size range, we applied micro-hole PSL dating to >11 μm quartz grains from core tops (0.5–2 cm horizon) from two sites on the central Lomonosov Ridge. We obtain a burial age estimate of ca. 2 ka for 11–62 μm grains at a multicore site 18 MC within a perched intra-ridge basin, in accord with ¹⁴C ages obtained on foraminifers. At nearby site 19 MC on the erosive ridge top, the micro-hole PSL dating of >90 μm quartz grains produces a burial age estimate of ∼ca. 25 ka, in accord with a foraminiferal ¹⁴C age of ca. 26 ka. However, the 11–90 μm grains from the same sample produce a much younger burial age estimate of ca. 9 ka. Thus, these two size fractions of quartz grains record different burial times and different deposition agents (icebergs vs. sea ice), providing insight into past sedimentary processes. Overall, our results confirm an earlier conclusion from micro-hole PSL dating study at the Alaska margin that medium to coarse silt fractions of quartz grains (11–90 μm or at least 62 μm) is the preferred material for direct dating of the last daylight exposure of detrital sediment in the Arctic Ocean.     

Rock and sediment luminescence dating of an ancient circular stone-walled enclosure at Sønnebøe,northern Scania,Sweden

Dating agricultural artefacts such as field walls and clearance cairns using radiocarbon can be challenging, especially since the association with datable material may be poor. Rock surface burial dating using luminescence offers an alternative. Here we report on the luminescence dating of a medieval circular stone-walled enclosure at Sønnebøe, northern Scania, Sweden, using both buried rocks and sediments. Luminescence burial profiles from IRSL signals measured at 50 °C (IR₅₀) indicated significant prior light exposure in 7 of the 8 samples tested (5 granite, 2 felsic gneiss), in some cases multiple exposure burial cycles were indicated. These rock surfaces had apparently been exposed for sufficient time to allow accurate IRSL ages for the most recent burial event. In contrasts, no useful post-IR IRSL profiles were obtained indicating that this signal was not sufficiently reset to allow accurate determination of the burial dose on any of these rocks. IR₅₀ fading corrections (typically ∼50%) were derived by comparing field saturation with that induced in the laboratory. Quartz extracted from sediments surrounding the rocks gave an average measured to given dose ratio of 1.03 ± 0.01 (n = 90), and these sediment samples were then dated using multigrain aliquots; the corresponding feldspar dose recovery ratio obtained using rock samples was 0.98 ± 0.05 (n = 28). A total of 15 ages were derived; 8 quartz OSL ages from the disturbed coarse grained sediments surrounding the structure, and 7 fading corrected IR₅₀ ages from the surfaces of rocks (2–3 mm chips, ∼1 mm thick) used in the construction of the structure itself. The exposure events preserved by the ring enclosure stones unequivocally show wall building taking place at the site between 800 and 300 years ago.     

Comment on “Thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence signals from volcanic ash: History of volcanism in Barren Island,Andaman Sea” by D. Banerjee (Quaternary Geochronology)

Banerjee, D. [2009. Thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence signals from volcanic ash: History of volcanism in Barren Island, Andaman Sea, Quaternary Geochronology, doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2009.01.011] aimed at determining the history of volcanism and evolution of Barren Island by dating a single ash sample using thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence signals. An attempt to date the volcanic episodes and decipher the history of the volcano with just one sample, the stratigraphic position of which is not known (or at least specified in the paper), does not make any sense, at least in the context of history of volcanism on Barren Island. The title of the paper is a misnomer, as it does not in fact address the reconstruction of the history of volcanism on the Barren Island, but discusses the methods and problem of age underestimation using this technique instead.     

Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on “Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon,SW North Island of New Zealand” by R. Grapes et al.

An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A ¹⁴C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.