Over the last decades luminescence dating techniques have been developed that allow earth scientists to determine the time of deposition of sediments. In this contribution we review: 1) the development of the methodology; 2) tests of the reliability of luminescence dating on Netherlands’ sediments; and 3) geological applications of the method in the Netherlands. Our review shows that optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz grains using the single aliquot regenerative dose method yields results in agreement with independent age control for deposits ranging in age from a few years up to 125 ka. Optical dating of quartz has successfully been applied to sediments from a wide range of depositional environments such as coastal dunes, cover sands, fluvial channel deposits, colluvial deposits and fimic soils. These results demonstrate that optical dating is a powerful tool to explore the natural archive of the Netherlands’ subsurface.
Davids, F., Roberts, H. M., Duller, G. A. T. (2009) Is X-ray core scanning non-destructive? Assessing the implications for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments. Journal of Quaternary Science, 25 (3), pp. 348-353Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is widely used to date clastic deposits, including those collected by coring. X-ray scanning of cores has become popular because of the rapidly acquired, high-resolution information it gives about optical, radiographic and elemental variations. Additionally, X-ray scanning is widely viewed as a non-destructive method. However, such instruments use an intense X-ray beam that irradiates the split core to enable both X-radiographic and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. This irradiation will influence the optically stimulated luminescence signal in the sediments. This study determines the radiation dose delivered to sediments in a core during an X-ray scan, and assesses the implications for studies wishing to combine X-ray scanning and OSL dating.Peer reviewe
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