Open AccessOptically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of glacial sediments from Arctic Russia ‐ depositional bleaching and methodological aspects
Author(s) -
THOMAS PUTHUSSERRY J.,
MURRAY ANDREW S.,
KJæR KURT H.,
FUNDER SVEND,
LARSEN EILIV
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1080/03009480600781933
Subject(s) - optically stimulated luminescence , geology , sedimentary depositional environment , arctic , optical dating , glacial period , last glacial maximum , quartz , the arctic , paleontology , physical geography , geomorphology , geochemistry , oceanography , geography , structural basin
Optical dating has been extensively used for stratigraphical correlation in the reconstruction of Eurasian ice‐sheet dynamics and palaeoenvironmental changes during the last glaciation. In recent terrestrial studies in Arctic Russia, Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) is the main chronological tool, and has been used across the whole of the Eurasian north. We report new OSL ages obtained on glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sediments from the Arkhangelsk and Taymyr regions of Arctic Russia and discuss the characteristics of the quartz OSL signal in terms of its saturation limit, variability among samples from the same location, and initial signal resetting in different depositional environments. It is shown that effect of partial bleaching in our mainly Weichselian samples is trivial because: modern analogues are well zeroed; there is good agreement between OSL and 14 C ages in young samples; and skewness in the dose distribution of relatively older samples is mainly due to varying shapes of the growth curves. The overall reliability of the OSL ages from Arctic Russia, when compared with the limited independent age controls available, appears to be good.