Thermoluminescence ages of some volcaniclastic materials

Abstract

Abstract A thermoluminescence measuring apparatus using the photon counting technique has been constructed. The quartz inclusion method, which has been developed in the thermoluminescence dating of pottery, is applied to some volcaniclastic materials. In the dating of pottery, the blue filter has been used to eliminate the incandescent signals. In the thermoluminescence measurement of quartz separated from volcaniclastic materials, the blue filter absorbs the TL signals emitted at high temperature. These TL signals are, therefore, detected using newly designed apparatus with an infrared absorption filter. The eight samples of volcaniclastic materials, whose ages range from 15 to 120 ka, were collected from the areas of Tanegashima Island, Mt Sambe and Fukui City in Japan. They were dated so that the accuracy of TL dating of volcaniclastic materials could be examined. Dates such as 14 C age, fission track age, and tephrochronological data for these samples were available. The agreement is satisfactory except for one base surge deposit.