Research Advances in ESR Provenance Tracing Methods of Quartz in Sediments

The ESR (Electron Spin Resonance) signals of quartz is a newly developed sediment provenance tracing method. In this paper, the various ESR signals in quartz, historical development of quartz ESR signals in sediment provenance tracing, thermal stability characteristics of heat treated E’ center, the potential use of quartz nature E’ center and the irradiated Al/Ti center, as well as successful applications in aeolian sediments, river sediments and marine sediments provenance tracing, were briefly reviewed. The most useful ESR centers of quartz include the heat treated E’ center, the nature E’ center, the Al center and the Ti center. According to recent application researches, the heat-treated E’ center is the most commonly practiced among them while the significance of provenance tracing by Al and Ti centers are still in experimental and theoretical stage. Moreover, nature signal intensities of quartz E’ center not only show a significant dependence on lithology both in bedrocks and deposits, but also can reflect the mixture ratio of deposits with different types of sourced bedrocks. As for the study objects, this method has been successfully used in the studies of provenance area of East Asian dust, the temporal and spatial changes of Loess Plateau provenance, the provenance change of aeolian sediment over time and space on Japanese Islands, as well as sediment provenance tracing of Japan Sea sediments. In addition, the ESR provenance tracing of quartz has promising application prospect in quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis of fluvial sediment provenance tracing. Along with the development of ESR dating, this method can significantly reflect and reconstruct the relationship among regional tectonic movements, geomorphic evolution, and climate evolution. In future work, the combination of trace elements provenance tracing and ESR signals provenance tracing in quartz will help improve and promote the development of sediments provenance tracing methods.