The most recent, mainly explosive eruptions of Ciomadul, the youngest volcano in the Carpatho-Pannonian Region, have been constrained by detailed field volcanological studies, major element pumice glass geochemistry, luminescence and radiocarbon dating, and a critical evaluation of available geochronological data. These investigations were complemented by the first tephrostratigraphic studies of the lacustrine infill of Ciomadul's twin craters (St. Ana and Mohoş) that received tephra deposition during the last eruptions of the volcano. Our analysis shows that significant explosive activity, collectively called EPPA (Early Phreatomagmatic and Plinian Activity), started at Ciomadul in or around the present- and organic matter from lacustrine sediments recovered from both craters, the last of these phreatomagmatic eruptions-that draped the landscape toward the east and southeast of the volcano-occurred at ~29.6 ka BP, some 2,000 years later than the previously suggested last eruption of Ciomadul.
h i g h l i g h t sDiscrepancy between quartz SAR-OSL ages obtained on fine and coarse grains. Dose response curve adequately fitted by a sum of two saturating exponentials. Isothermal decay fitted by a single exponential. Clear dependency between the saturation characteristics (D 0 s) and the quartz grain size. No correlation between the 2 D 0 value and the maximum attainable accurate equivalent dose. a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c tThere are two major problems commonly encountered when applying Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating in the high dose range: (i) age discrepancy between different grain sizes, and (ii) age underestimation. A marked and systematic discrepancy between fine-grain (4e11 mm) and coarse-grain (63e90 mm) quartz single aliquot regeneration protocol (SAR) ages has been reported previously for Romanian and Serbian loess >40 ka (D e of~100 Gy), generally with fine-grain ages underestimating the depositional age. In this paper, we show a similar age pattern for two grain size fractions from Chinese loess, thus pointing to a potential worldwide phenomenon. While age underestimation is often attributed to signal saturation problems, this is not the case for fine grain material, which saturates at higher doses than coarse grains, yet begins to underestimate true ages earlier. Here we examine the dose response curves of quartz from different sedimentary contexts around the world, using a range of grain sizes (diameters of 4e11 mm, 11e30 mm, 35e50 mm, 63e90 mm, 90e125 mm, 125e180 mm, and 180 e250 mm). All dose response curves can be adequately described by a sum of two saturating exponential functions, whose saturation characteristics (D 0 values) are clearly anticorrelated with grain diameter (4) through an inverse square root relationship, D 0 ¼ A/√4, where A is a scaling factor. While the mechanism behind this grain-size dependency of saturation characteristics still needs to be understood, our results show that the observation of an extended SAR laboratory dose response curve does not necessarily enable high doses to be recorded accurately, or provide a corresponding extended age range.
Abstract:In this study we present luminescence investigations of four samples of loess bracketing the Campanian Ignimbrite/Y5 tephra at the Rasova-Valea cu Pietre site, on the eastern bank of the Danube River, southeastern Romania. Investigations involved SAR-OSL dating on aliquots of fine (4-11 μm) and medium-grained (63-90 μm) quartz, as well as single grain analyses on 125-180 μm quartz. Luminescence dating results coupled with glass-shard chemical fingerprinting assign the depositional age and origin of the ash layer to that of the Campanian Ignimbrite/Y5 tephra, dated elsewhere using 40 Ar/ 39 Ar to 39.28 ± 0.11 ka. Fine-grained (4-11 μm) quartz SAR-OSL analyses yielded ages of 44.4 ± 4.5 ka below the ash, and 41.4 ± 4.2 ka above the ash layer. Single grain analysis on coarse-grained quartz, however, demonstrates that coarse material from these samples exhibits low sensitivity and responds poorly to internal checks of the SAR protocol in comparison with the finer sediment. This observation highlights the need for more extensive investigations into the luminescence properties of quartz as well as into the origin of quartz contributions from different primary sources in the Lower Danube loess steppe.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.