Zeroing tests of luminescence sediment dating in the Arctic Ocean: Review and new results from Alaska-margin core tops and central-ocean dirty sea ice

Abstract

Additional numeric dating techniques are needed for sediments in the Arctic Ocean that span at least the last half million years. Almost all presently suitable geochronometers are relative-dating methods, requiring significant assumptions about sedimentation rates (such as continuous deposition and preservation). An alternative ‘absolute’ geochronometer, luminescence sediment dating, assumes daylight exposure of siliciclastic grains before burial. Early tests and applications of thermoluminescence (TL) techniques in the western Arctic Ocean showed some promise, but trans-ocean application to core tops of more sensitive photon-stimulated-luminescence (PSL) multi-aliquot procedures revealed large regional variations in accuracy. Recent applications of single-aliquot PSL procedures to core tops and dirty sea ice refine our understanding of the limitations and capabilities of PSL dating in this ocean. Dirty sea ice is the source of most of the bottom sediment. Particular procedures for multi-aliquot and single-aliquot PSL dating produce near-zero ages for silt grains from 4 available dirty sea-ice samples. This suggests that TL and PSL age overestimates obtained previously from core-top samples were due mainly to bottom-current reworking (mixing or stripping) of silt grains in abyssal darkness, rather than due to sedimentation of relict-age grains from sea ice. Single-aliquot PSL dating of silt grains from core tops at two different-depth sites at the Alaskan margin reveals large variations in accuracy. This re-emphasizes the critical sensitivity of fine-silt PSL dating accuracy to the effects of bottom-current processes. These recent applications are beginning to provide a more precise knowledge of just where and how PSL methods are likely to be accurate in the Arctic Ocean.