Independent Age Control Research Articles

A comparison of TL age estimates from different mineral fractions of sands

Although TL dating of sediments aims to produce accurate dates, some recent attempts to date both fine-grain polymineral mixtures and large-grain feldspars have resulted in age estimates that appear to underestimate the true geological age of the material. TL age estimates reported for different mineral fractions (quartz and feldspar) from the same (large-grain) sand samples have also proved unexpectedly different. The possible reasons for underestimation of large-grain feldspar ages are reviewed in the context of an exercise designed to look for internal consistency in TL age estimates from quartz and feldspar fractions of sand samples from Chelford, U.K. The analyses of the Chelford material show internally consistent age estimates over the range 20–100 ka BP, that are also in agreement with the independent age control that is available for the site.