Guide for interpreting and reporting luminescence dating results

Abstract

The development and application of luminescence dating and dosimetry techniques have grown exponentially in the last several decades. Luminescence methods provide age control for a broad range of geological and archaeological contexts and can characterize mineral and glass properties linked to geologic origin, Earth-surface processes, and past exposure to light, heat, and ionizing radiation. The applicable age range for luminescence methods spans the last 500,000 years or more, which covers the period of modern human evolution, and provides context for rates and magnitudes of geological processes, hazards, and climate change. Given the growth in applications and publications of luminescence data, there is a need for unified, community-driven guidance regarding the publication and interpretation of luminescence results. This paper presents a guide to the essential information necessary for publishing and archiving luminescence ages as well as supporting data that is transportable and expandable for different research objectives and publication outlets. We outline the information needed for the interpretation of luminescence data sets, including data associated with equivalent dose, dose rate, age models, and stratigraphic context. A brief review of the fundamentals of luminescence techniques and applications, including guidance on sample collection and insight into laboratory processing and analysis steps, is presented to provide context for publishing and data archiving.

Reconstructing the Last 71 ka Paleoclimate in Northeast China by Integrating Typical Loess Sections

“…The age of sample 6-collected at a depth of 10.31 m from the bottom of the L 1-3 S 1 layer-was 71.5 ± 4.36 ka (D e = 277.26 ± 4.92 Gy), which was in agreement with the age (71 ka) of L 1 /S 1 boundary within the margin of error [4]. Several papers had suggested that a reliable quartz OSL D e value for loess distributed in China is around ~230 Gy (or lower than 300 Gy) and that the saturation age is around ~100 ka [9,57,58]. Two quartz samples-L 1-3 S 2 and middle S-have D e values higher than 300 Gy.…”

“…Later, the samples were soaked in 35% fluorosilicate for about 2-5 days and washed with warm HCl (10%) to remove the precipitated fluorides for purifying quartz grains (90-125 µm). Lastly, the purified quartz grains were fixed in the center area of the 9.7 mm diameter stainless steel discs using silicone oil to determine the equivalent dose (D e ) [57,58].…”

“…For all samples, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to measure the uranium (U) and thorium (Th) concentrations, and K content was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis [58]. The experiment was conducted at the Analysis and Testing Center of the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences.…”

Testing the applicability of standardised growth curves (SGC) for chemically heterogeneous single-grain feldspars from the Atacama Desert, Chile

“…The goodness-of-fit of the SGC can be evaluated using the In previous papers the agreement of SAR and SGC results was based on their De values ± their 2 σ standard error (e.g., Li et al, 2015a,b;Sontag-González et al, 2021). When reporting luminescence ages the 1 σ standard error is commonly used (Mahan et al, 2022). The De values had average RSEs of ~16 %, therefore the agreement within 1 σ seems inappropriate to evaluate the differences between the SAR procedure and the SGC method.…”

Sand budget failure underlies coastal erosion on the west coast of South Africa

“…Each sample was divided In the laboratory under safe light conditions for equivalent dose (D e ) and dosimetry (D r ) measurements. Quartz grains were extracted for OSL measurements following standard sample preparation techniques (see [43,44]). Organic matter and carbonates were removed using H 2 O 2 and HCl, respectively, before the 180-212 µm quartz fraction was isolated by dry sieving and density separation using a solution of sodium polytungstate at 2.70 g.cm − 3 and 2.63 g.cm − 3 .…”