Thermoluminescence age of quartz xenocrysts in basaltic lava from oninomi monogenetic Volcano, Northern Kyushu, Japan

Abstract

We determined the eruption age of basaltic rocks by application of thermoluminescence (TL) method, which is often used for TL dating, to quartz. Mafic magma only rarely includes quartz because of their mutual disequilibration. The basaltic lavas reported herein include quartz as xeno-crysts, as corroborated by their rounded or anhedral shape. The basaltic lava used for this study is from the Oninomi monogenetic volcano in northern Kyushu, Japan. The volcano eruption was estimated as occurring 7.3-29 ka because the lava exists between two widespread tephras: Aira-Tanzawa ash (26-29 ka) and Kikai-Akahoya ash (7.3 ka). We succeed-ed in collecting ca. 200 mg of quartz by decomposition of 30 kg of the lava samples. TL measure-ments for the lava indicate the eruption age as 15.8 ± 2.5 ka, which is fairly consistent with the strati-graphical estimation. Although the TL method has played a considerable part in constraining the timescale of Quaternary events, its application has been limited to silicic samples. The present result demonstrates the availability of quartz for dating even of mafic rock. © 2012 Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland. All rights reserved.