Simplified procedures for optical dating of young sediments using quartz

Abstract

Simplified procedures were introduced in OSL dating of young samples with dim and poorly bleached quartz grains. Standardized growth curve (SGC) has been established with quartz OSL dating with the single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol. OSL dating is achieved by measuring the natural OSL signal (LN) and the luminescence (TN) response to a test dose, and then projecting onto the SGC. Large data sets of aliquots enable to have statistical analysis and application of age models for poorly bleached samples. Finite mixture model (FMM) was applied to the data sets. Only aliquots meeting the objective selecting criteria are analyzed further for determining the equivalent dose (De) values. As a result, reliable De estimates were obtained using the proposed simplified procedures, with the advantage of saving substantial machine time. Single grain measurements have been effectively achieved with the single aliquots for the dim samples.