Publication Date:
2018-05-27
Description:
Publication date: Available online 25 May 2018 Source: Quaternary Geochronology Author(s): M. Fuchs, J. Lomax Stone pavements are typical landforms in arid environments, composed of a monolayer of clasts at the surface, associated with an underlying unit of eolian fines. They represent important paleoenvironmental sediment archives, for which reliable chronostratigraphic age constraints are needed. In a first study on stone pavements from the Mojave Desert/USA and Badia Desert/Jordan it could be demonstrated that optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL) on quartz represents a promising dating method for the eolian fines, but quartz OSL results remained challenging, because the D e distributions were unexpectedly broad and OSL fine- and coarse-grain ages were significantly different (Fuchs et al., 2015). The reason for this age difference was unclear and methodological as well as geomorphological arguments were proposed. Here we present new quartz OSL results from additional study sites and various environmental settings, to better understand possible methodological or geomorphological reasons for the previously detected age characteristics. Stone pavements from the Negev Desert/Israel, from Fuerteventura/Spain and from the Black Rock Desert/USA are investigated in this new study, and their OSL results derived from different grain sizes are compared and discussed.
Print ISSN:
1871-1014
Electronic ISSN:
1878-0350
Topics:
Geosciences
