Testing the TT-OSL single-aliquot protocol for quartz sediment dating.

Abstract

Thermally-transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) is a form of optically stimulated luminescence that saturates at much higher doses than conventional OSL (Wang et al, 2006b). Luminescence sediment dating is a technique whereby the natural radiation dose given to a sample is measured. This is divided by the environmental radiation rate of the sample site to give the sample's age. As TT-OSL is able to measure higher doses than conventional OSL, it has been considered a candidate for long range luminescence sediment dating, beyond one million years. In this thesis, TT-OSL single-aliquot sediment dating protocols were tested on selected samples from the south-east of South Australia (SESA) stranded dune sequence, a sequence of ancient dunes ranging from 0 to 900 thousand years of age that have previously been independently dated using luminescence and non-luminescence dating methods. A young sample with a high natural dose from Baldina Creek, Burra, South Australia was also dated. Measurements of the thermal depletion of the TT-OSL signal were also made. It was found that, for the SESA samples, TT-OSL dating results do not agree with previous independent measurements above 200 ka. The results for the young Baldina Creek sample were within the expected range.