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Optical dating of sediments

Nature volume 313, pages 105–107 (1985)Cite this article

Abstract

A new method for dating sediments is proposed, which determines the time since the sediment was last exposed to sunlight. An argon-ion laser is used to excite electrons from thermally-stable light-sensitive traps and the subsequent luminescence used as a measure of the past radiation dose. Two sample sequences spanning the periods 0–700 kyr and 0–6 kyr show steadily increasing luminescence with age. An age of 62±8 kyr is obtained for a silt radiocarbon dated at 58.8±0.3 kyr. Problems were found with two much younger samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Simon Eraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6

    D. J. Huntley & M. L. W. Thewalt

  2. Department of Archaeology, Simon Eraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6

    D. I. Godfrey-Smith

Authors
  1. D. J. Huntley
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  2. D. I. Godfrey-Smith
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  3. M. L. W. Thewalt
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Huntley, D., Godfrey-Smith, D. & Thewalt, M. Optical dating of sediments. Nature 313, 105–107 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/313105a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/313105a0

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