Luminescence dating of a geological sample from Denizli, Turkey

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2007.07.020

Applied Radiation and Isotopes

Volume 66, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 69-74

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2007.07.020 Get rights and content

Abstract

Recent advances in luminescence dating have led to increasing application of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) technique to investigate the sedimentation of the depositional environmental samples. In this study, a geological sample was dated by using OSL technique.

The sample was collected from a main fault line located in Denizli, Turkey. It was prepared using the fine grain method. The optimum preheat temperature of 205 °C and duration value of 3 min are determined through a sequence of experiments. For the calculation of the age of the samples the equivalent dose (ED) was measured using both the multiple-aliquot and single-aliquot techniques. The annual dose (AD) was obtained by measuring the concentration of the major radioactive isotopes in the samples by using a high purity Ge detector. The age of the sample was found to be between 5490±300 years and 6000±320 years.

Introduction

The time elapsed after the occurrence of a geological event can be estimated by placing reliance on advances made in the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating method. OSL dating is based on the fact that when for example, sand grains are exposed to sunlight over a period of several hours, their OSL intensities decay to a residual and constant value; this is the so-called ‘zeroing of the OSL’. In addition to cosmic rays, when the crystals are buried they are also subject to ionizing radiation from radionuclides in the surrounding soil. This causes an increase in the trapped charge concentration (electron and holes) in metastable energy levels located in the forbidden band of the crystalline media. When the sample is exposed to light the electrons can be released from the traps and recombine with the holes, emitting OSL. Typically, the OSL is proportional to charge trapped concentration; this can be related to the time in which the crystal was subject to ionizing radiation. The age of the sediments can be calculated by dividing the energy stored in the grain, the equivalent dose (ED), by the annual dose rate (AD) at which energy is absorbed from the flux of the ionizing radiation. The luminescence method is a widely used technique for environmental dosimetry and dating archeological, geological materials (Huntley et al., 1985; Matsuoka et al., 1993; Wieser et al., 1993; Singhvi et al., 1994; Aitken, 1998; Tatumi et al., 2003; Tanir et al., 2004; Yusoff et al., 2005).

Luminescence methods provide the possibility for dating earthquakes (say magnitude greater than 5) that have produced ruptures of the surface. A vertical drop of several meters is not uncommon for the surface expression of faulting. Immediately following the earthquake there would be a contour step, the low side of which would then become progressively filled with sediment, colluvial, aeolian or water laid. On the assumption that the infill process is sufficiently slow that the sediments have been exposed to sunlight long enough to reset the luminescence clock, it is possible to use luminescence to date the infilling and hence find the time, at the minimum, previous to the earth movement that had occurred. Knowledge of this time would contribute to the assessment of earthquake risks (Yanchou et al., 2002).

Denizli, a city located in the Agean region of Turkey, is one of the most geologically active areas that carry major earthquake risk in Turkey. In the present work, a sample that was taken from an opened trench in Denizli was investigated. Geologists are interested in two main points: first, the age of the collected sample, and second, whether the fault where the sample was collected from is still active. In this study, luminescence dating was carried out using multiple-aliquot-additive-dose (MAAD) and single-aliquot-regeneration (SAR) procedures on polymineral geological sample.

Section snippets

Apparatus

The apparatus used in this study, an Optical Dating System 9010 Reader, was developed by Spooner et al. (1990). If the technique uses infrared photons (wavelength 880±80 nm) as a stimulation source, the measured signal is called infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL). The basic luminescence reader incorporates an Infrared light-emitting diode (IR-LED) module based on the design described by Spooner et al. (1990). All data were collected using an IRSL add-on unit for the 9010 automated reader,

Preheat temperature

For OSL dating, it is important to select a preheating procedure which is necessary to eliminate the thermally unstable IRSL components. The preheat procedure of 5 min at 220 °C on the basis of a natural dose/(natural+additive) dose ‘plateau’ test has been used for the multiple-aliquot dating, as originally developed by Rhodes (1988). Also various preheat conditions have been proposed, e.g., 1 min at 240 °C (Franklin et al., 1995), 10 min at 220 °C (Tanır et al., 2000), 1 min at 220 °C (Williams et

Results and discussion

The results of preheating study are depicted in Fig. 3. As indicated in Fig. 3(a) and (b), both curves have a flat region. The midpoints of the flat regions can be accepted as the fit values. The mid-point of Fig. 3(a) is 205 °C while the mid-point of Fig. 3(b) is 3 min; these results give the suitable preheating values.

A typical OSL decay curve from a sediment sample is shown in Fig. 4 which indicates that the traps were emptied in 200 s and consequently the sample was counted for 200 s.

The

Conclusions

Different protocols have been used to determine the ED value using the OSL technique. In this study, a comparison of MAAD and SAR procedures for equivalent dose determination was done using polymineral grains. The results obtained from these procedures are in agreement. It was observed that the determination of ED by using the MAAD procedure takes two days, while the same process by the SAR procedure takes six days. From this point of view, the MAAD procedure seems more advantageous. On the

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [ÇAYDAG-105Y006], Ankara University [BAP-2006074501], Denizli Municipality and General Directorate of Disaster Affairs.

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Luminescence dating of a geological sample from Denizli, Turkey

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Apparatus

Preheat temperature

Results and discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgment

J. Lumin.

Appl. Radiat. Isot.

Quat. Sci. Rev.

Quat. Sci. Rev. (Quat. Geochron.)

J. Environ. Radioact.

J. Lumin.

Appl. Radiat. Isot.