<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>We investigate the suitability of sedimentary quartz associated with former glacial advances in northern Switzerland to provide reliable burial dose estimates using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). Previous studies on northern alpine quartz show that its signal characteristics can be poor and potentially problematic. We analyse quartz signals of small aliquots, which reveal the presence of a prominent medium or slow component in the initial part of some signals. Nonetheless, rejection of aliquots with unfavourable signal composition does not alter the burial dose estimates, but significantly reduces the data set for D<sub>e</sub> determination. Signal lifetimes from isothermal decay measurements cover a wide range of values, yet the lowest lifetimes are high enough to guarantee a reliable burial dose estimate for samples of &lt; 400 ka. Comparison of small aliquot and single grain burial dose distributions reveals that signal averaging masks partial bleaching in some of the samples. We therefore strongly recommend single grain measurements for samples from this setting and area, in order to exclude age overestimation due to partial bleaching.</p></abstract>

We investigate the suitability of sedimentary quartz associated with former glacial advances in northern Switzerland to provide reliable burial dose estimates using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). Previous studies on northern alpine quartz show that its signal characteristics can be poor and potentially problematic. We analyse quartz signals of small aliquots, which reveal the presence of a prominent medium or slow component in the initial part of some signals. Nonetheless, rejection of aliquots with unfavourable signal composition does not alter the burial dose estimates, but significantly reduces the data set for De determination. Signal lifetimes from isothermal decay measurements cover a wide range of values, yet the lowest lifetimes are high enough to guarantee a reliable burial dose estimate for samples of < 400 ka. Comparison of small aliquot and single grain burial dose distributions reveals that signal averaging masks partial bleaching in some of the samples. We therefore strongly recommend single grain measurements for samples from this setting and area, in order to exclude age overestimation due to partial bleaching.

Testing the suitability of dim sedimentary quartz from northern Switzerland for OSL burial dose estimation

Geochronometria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

We investigate the suitability of sedimentary quartz associated with former glacial advances in northern Switzerland to provide reliable burial dose estimates...

Testing the suitability of dim sedimentary quartz from northern Switzerland for OSL burial dose estimation

Published Online: Apr 12, 2017

Page range: 66 - 76

Received: Sep 22, 2016

Accepted: Feb 20, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0058

Keywords
OSL, quartz, dim, signal components, lifetime, Alps

© 2016 M. Trauerstein.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Testing the suitability of dim sedimentary quartz from northern Switzerland for OSL burial dose estimation

Published Online: Apr 12, 2017

Page range: 66 - 76

Received: Sep 22, 2016

Accepted: Feb 20, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0058

KeywordsOSL, quartz, dim, signal components, lifetime, Alps

© 2016 M. Trauerstein.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
OSL, quartz, dim, signal components, lifetime, Alps