Investigations on the degree of bleaching of quartz OSL signals using modern aeolian dust from Western Loess Plateau, China

Abstract

Optically Stimulated Luminescence signal of quartz extracted from modern aeolian dust with known maximum age (about decades) was analyzed in terms of degree of bleaching. The results of dose recovery tests show that the modified double single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol with the early background subtraction is robust for dating these modern dusts using small aliquots. Bleach-ing of these dusts is discussed based on the distribution of De values in histograms, scatter plots of De versus sensitivity corrected natural OSL signal and comparison between measured De and expected De. The results indicate that most dusts were completely bleached but some dusts were not completely bleached. For those incompletely bleached dusts in Lanzhou area, the maximum OSL age overestima-tion is up to ~1 ka, which might be caused by fast deposition accompanied by heavy sand/dust storms. The research suggests that cautions should be given to OSL ages younger than 1 ka in the western China close to deserts. © 2013 Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland.