A comparison of OSL ages derived from silt-sized quartz and polymineral grains from Chinese loess

Abstract

Recent work (Watanuki et al., submitted) has shown by comparison with independent age control that silt-sized quartz grains extracted from Japanese loess can be used for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating for equivalent doses of up to 425 Gy (∼500 ka at these sites). Further comparison with infrared (IR) stimulated and post-IR blue-stimulated OSL showed that the latter signal gave accurate ages, and was probably dominated by quartz, whereas the former systematically underestimated ages in the range 30–600 ka, and showed fading in laboratory tests. The main source of the loess deposits in Japan is the Chinese mainland; in eastern Asia, loess is widely distributed by the prevailing westerly winds, and one of the main sources is in the western desert areas of China. Unfortunately, independent age control is very unusual in loess deposits in China, and there is little evidence for the accuracy of existing luminescence ages from this material. As an alternative approach, this study builds on the Japanese results by using loess from two Chinese sites, and examining the relationship between single-aliquot regeneration dose IR and post-IR blue-stimulated luminescence ages from polymineral samples, and blue-stimulated quartz luminescence ages. The normalized blue-stimulated OSL intensity from quartz from the eastern site was about 10 times that from the west, suggesting either a different source of material, or (less likely) an increase in quartz sensitivity with transport distance. By comparison with quartz results we conclude that, in our samples of Chinese loess, the post-IR blue-stimulated OSL is the more reliable polymineral signal, when compared with the IR signal. It may nevertheless include a feldspar component, and this should be tested for using laboratory fading experiments.