IR-OSL dating of uranium-rich deposits from the new late Pleistocene section at the Voka site, North-Eastern Estonia

Abstract

This paper presents a series of results obtained from the 22 m thick deposits of the late Pleistocene section at the Voka site, NE Estonia. The section has been intensively studied during the past few years to elucidate the dynamics of the late Weichselian palaeoenvironmental changes in the Baltic region. According to the results obtained, the sediments at the Voka site were deposited in presumably freshwater sedimentary basin, which existed at least during the whole pre-Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) period of late Pleistocene (MIS 5 to 3). One of the characteristic features of the deposits is the high uranium content (up to 23 ppm) in the upper part of the section studied. This study aimed to focus on the influence of potentially unstable environmental radioactivity on dosimetric dating results due to possible disequilibrium in the U decay chain. It was found that despite the high uranium content in the deposits, the dispersion of the dates obtained is surprisingly low. At the depths with the highest uranium content, only a moderate increase of the dispersion of the ages is observed.