Luminescence dating of old (>70 ka) Chinese loess:: A comparison of single-aliquot OSL and IRSL techniques

The applicability of two different approaches in the luminescence dating of old (> 70 ka) Chinese loess is investigated. Both SAR-OSL ages obtained on 63-90 mu m quartz grains and SAR-IRSL ages obtained on 4-11 mu m polymineral grains, for samples collected from two sites in the Chinese Loess Plateau (Luochuan and Dongchuan) are presented. The characteristics of the luminescence signals stimulated by blue and infrared light are investigated in terms of dose response and dose recovery, and as a function of age. Additionally, anomalous fading measurements from the 4 10 nm IRSL emission in polymineral fine-grains are reported. An average value of g(2days) amounting to similar to 3% per decade was measured and seems to be independent of site location and age. For the samples from Luochuan, independent age control (pedostratigraphy and palaeomagnetism) is available. At both sites, the SAR-OSL ages are always lower than the SAR-IRSL ages after they have been corrected for anomalous fading. It seems that the quartz-based SAR-OSL ages are accurate for the younger ages, but that they underestimate the true age of deposition for loess that was deposited about 60-70 ka ago. The fading-corrected SAR-IRSL ages are in better agreement with the pedostratigraphic age control (similar to 75 and similar to 130 ka) and allow dating beyond the quartz OSL range. Based on our results, we suggest that conventional SAR-OSL and SAR-IRSL protocols at these sites should be restricted to samples of ages not exceeding similar to 40-50 and similar to 100-120ka, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.