Luminescence dating of the top of a deep water core from the NESTOR site near the Hellenic Trench, east Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

In the present study, the uppermost 3 cm of muddy, seabed sediment was collected from a deep-sea sediment core, drilled from a water depth of 4 km, near the deepest site of the Mediterranean Sea, outside Pylos, Greece. The core was divided into 7 layer samples, each 3–4 mm thick, in order to get an independent age assessment for each one using luminescence dating; from polymineral coarse grains in the range 30–60 μm. Between 11 and 22 aliquots were measured for each sample using the optically stimulated luminescence, single-aliquot regenerative-dose analysis. The estimated mean equivalent dose values had an uncertainty less than 3% and resulted in optical ages ranging from 3.5 to approximately 5 ka, with uncertainties lying between 5.5 and 7.4%. Multiple-aliquot, thermoluminescence-based, additive-dose, total bleaching approach provided equivalent doses with typical errors of 10–15% and ages in the range of 3.6 and 9.4 ka, with uncertainties up to 17%. Single-aliquot optical ages are shown to be relatively successful, due to their consistency with AMS 14C radiocarbon ages, obtained from Planktonic foraminifera from the same core. Luminescence dates for the topmost 1.5 cm indicate a substantial mix and post burial disturbance of the surface sediment. Below the topmost 1.5 cm, both luminescent approaches indicate ages which increase smoothly with depth. The concordant OSL and TL age estimates for the sample O5, in conjunction with specific luminescence properties and its major-element geochemical chemistry content, suggest that it was heated during the Santorini volcanic eruption. Deposition rates of 8.6–18.9 cm over 10 ka below the sample O5, provided by optical ages, exhibit an excellent level of agreement with the accumulation rate of 7–18 cm over 10 ka at the sea bottom, already reported for the site under study.