Abstract

We have applied the partial bleach (R-Gamma) thermoluminescence (TL) dating method to four organic-rich Ab horizons of buried soils from Mount Kenya. Our objective was to test the feasibility of directly measuring the time of last exposure to sunlight of the fine-grained silicate minerals within these horizons. The resulting apparent ages for three samples of 1.2±0.3, 6±2 and 10±2 ka (1 std. dev.) are in general agreement with associated 14C age estimates from buried whole soil (paleosol) samples. The fourth sample, of an age (though unknown) presumed to lie beyond the 14C dating limit, yielded a TL age estimate of 60±20 ka. Notwithstanding some limitations, these results are encouraging and imply that with simple refinements, this TL method is capable of directly dating accurately such buried soils, probably to well beyond the ≈ 40 ka 14C dating limit.

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