LUMINESCENCE DATING OF SEDIMENTS USING SINGLE ALIQUOTS - NEW PROCEDURES

The application of luminescence dating to Quaternary sediments has been hampered by the labour intensive procedures involved. Determination of equivalent doses using single aliquots, measured using an automated luminescence reader, offers a significant reduction in labour. Equivalent dose determinations using two single aliquot additive dose methods are compared with equivalent doses measured using standard multiple aliquot methods for a suite of 12 dune sand samples from southwest North Island, New Zealand. The single aliquot correction method, based upon adjusting the magnitude of the measured luminescence signal is, found to give underestimates for those samples whose equivalent dose is greater than 80 Gy, and whose luminescence response to dose is non-linear. A second correction method based upon adjusting the value of the total added dose that the sample has received is described. This second method gives equivalent dose results similar to those measured using standard multiple aliquot methods over the range from 0.1 to 400 Gy.