Luminescence dating of historical fluvial deposits from the Danube and Ebro

Abstract

The validity of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been tested on known-age (historical) fluvial deposits along the rivers Danube (Austria) and Ebro (Spain). As partial bleaching of the OSL signal prior to deposition can interfere with correct age estimates, different approaches to extracting the dose accumulated during burial are compared. Using the finite mixture model gave OSL ages that are internally as well as stratigraphically consistent and in agreement with independent age control. According to these results, fluvial deposition at the Danube River study site can be attributed to different periods ranging from Bronze Age to the 18th century A.D. Fluvial deposits of Roman age and of the late 17th or early 18th century A.D. were found at the Ebro River study site. This is consistent with the morphological subdivision of the valleys and encourages further investigation of the fluvial and archaeological history of the study areas using OSL.

14th-16th-Century Danube Floods and Long-Term Water-Level Changes in Archaeological and Sedimentary Evidence in The Western and Central Carpathian Basin: an Overview with Documentary Comparison

“…Due to its immediate vicinity to Bratislava, the available data on 15 th -16 th -century sedimentation conditions and changes of the Danube has crucial importance in the further understanding of contemporary flood processes. The rapid 16 th -century silting-up process of a late medieval harbour, located in a fossil Danube channel, was investigated and results recently published by Fiebing and their colleagues (Fiebig et al, 2009;Thamó-Bozsó et al, 2011). The study area is located south to the town of Orth along the Danube (at the SW edge of the Marchfeld area, a former floodplain), and thus between Vienna and Bratislava (see Fig.…”

The effect of fluvial environments on sediment bleaching and Holocene luminescence ages — A case study from the German Alpine Foreland

“…Successful OSL dating of coarse grained Holocene channel fills was reported by Wallinga et al (2001) for the Rhine-Meuse-Delta and by Fiebig et al (2009) from the Austrian Danube and the Ebro. The bar deposits dated in our study were incompletely bleached, but yielded a high percentage of bleached grains, resulting in MAM and FMM ages agreeing with the independent ages.…”

“…The FMM model is normally used for mixed dose populations (e.g. Roberts et al, 2000;Lomax et al 2011), but can also be used for incompletely bleached samples, if the 'youngest' dose population is used for age calculation (Rodnight et al, 2006, Fiebig et al, 2009). While Rodnight et al (2006) proposed to exclude the 'youngest' dose population where their proportion was <10%, this was not necessary for our samples; all…”

“…This problem has shown to be particularly relevant for young sediments (e.g. Jain et al, 2004;Rodnight et al, 2006;Fiebig et al, 2009). Incomplete bleaching results in scattered and positively skewed equivalent dose (D e ) distributions (e.g.…”

Soil Processes and Functions in Critical Zone Observatories: Hypotheses and Experimental Design

“…in C horizon · soil N conc. have similar pattern · annual precipitation of 980 mm yr −1 , surface runoff 460 mm, estimated evapotranspiration 520 mm yr −1 · mean air temperature 5.3°C, snow cover ?120 d yr −1 Fuchsenbigl Agricultural Field Station CZO, Austria (Fiebig et al, 2009;Lair et al, 2009;Tatzber et al, 2009;Zehetner et al, 2009) · Incised basin fi ll and alpine meltwater terraces · Up to 20 m of gravel covered in places by several meters of fi ne sediments, mainly silt and fi ne sands · Soils classify mainly as Fluvisols (Sites I, II, III, IV), fertile and well-developed Chernozems further from the Danube (Sites V, VI) · Soil ages ranged from about 20 yr (Site I) to 2500 yr (Site IV) ) · Increasing soil ages expected for Sites V and VI · soil minerals: calcite, dolomite, quartz, plagioclase, K feldspar, and mica · clay mineralogy: illite and chlorite (Lair et al, 2007) · soil carbonate contents and particle size distributions similar for Sites I-IV (Lair et al, 2007). · soil pH varies in a narrow range above neutral · Organic C contents in the topsoil strongly infl uenced by soil age and land use · Mean annual temperature 9-10°C · Annual precipitation 500-580 mm, annual evapotranspiration 570 mm · 30-40 d snow cover yr −1 Koiliaris Experimental Watershed CZO, Greece (Crete) (Moraetis et al, 2010; Kourgialas et al, 2010;Stamati et al, 2006Stamati et al, , 2009 · 71.8% of watershed on limestones, dolomites, marbles, and recrystallized limestones with cherts (Plattenkalk, Tripolis, Trypali series), 9.5% calcaric marls and 6.1% marls in Neogene formations, 6.1% schists and 6.4% quaternary alluvial deposits · Th in, poorly developed soils follow regional lithology · Soils in limestones correspond to alpine humic Ranker type and Podzols mixed with forest acid red soil with calcaric Lithosols at higher altitudes · Soils in Neogene and alluvial formations are thicker profi les of calcareous rendzine soil · Calcaric regosols are developed in Neocene and alluvial formations at low altitude · Th in horizons of Eutric Lithosols with mainly coarse texture are developed in schists · soil mineralogy of ?30% clay mineral abundance · soil pH range 7.6-7.9 typifi es karstic system · karstic groundwater with 6.3-7.8 mg L −1 dissolved O 2 and 300-mV Eh · 2-4-m well in neogene deposits with pH 7.2, 4.9 mg L −1 dissolved O 2 , 15 mg L −1 NO 3 -N · mean annual temperature of 18.6°C (lower elevation and typical snow cover period of 150 d) · avg.…”