Abstract

ESR dating has been systematically applied in earth sciences and archaeology since 1975 when Ikeya dated a stalactite from the Akiyoshi cave in Japan. In the meantime this new technique has been successfully applied to the dating of materials such as speleothems, spring deposited travertines, mollusc shells, corals, and tooth enamel. The present research focuses on the dating of quartz which allows the age assessment of heated ceramics, volcanic rocks, intrafault material, or windblown sediments. ESR dating is based on the measurement of the number of paramagnetic centers in a mineral. These centers are generated by alpha-, beta-, and gamma-radiation of the matural radioelements such as U, Th, and K, and have accumulated over time. Two parameters have to be determined: the accumulated dose (AD) and the dose rate ( D) to which the sample was exposed. This review comprises three major parts: (a) introduction into ESR dating; (b) application of the method; and (c) appendices giving detailed description of dose rate calculation, physical basis of electron spin resonance, the ESR spectrometer and ESR lines. The major emphasis lies on the outline of the application of ESR dating. This includes the discussion of the ESR-signals of the various materials, sampling, sample preparation, and measurement techniques.

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