Luminescence and radiocarbon dating of raised beach sediments, Bunger Hills, East Antarctica

Luminescence and radiocarbon dating of raised marine sediments from the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica, demonstrates that luminescence methods can be applied to such poorly bleached sediments as long as the luminescence behaviour of the sediments is understood. This is essential as the complete zeroing of the luminescence signal due to light exposure is required to allow an accurate age for the sediment accumulation. Unfortunately, independent checks on the luminescence ages are rare. In the present study, some independent age control is provided by AMS radiocarbon ages from shell obtained from and adjacent to the luminescence dated horizons, although the radiocarbon ages may suffer to some degree from variability in the marine reservoir effect. Application of the single aliquot luminescence technique to feldspar grains from the marine sediments demonstrated that the luminescence behaviour of the sediments was complex. For each sample, 18 replicate paleodose estimates were used to demonstrate whether the sediments were well bleached before deposition. Optically, well-bleached samples give younger luminescence ages, whilst poorly bleached samples often give excessively old ages compared to the associated radiocarbon-dated material. (author)