The application of radiofluorescence dating (IR-RF) on loess

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Fuchs
• Subject Area: Physical Geography
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264769390

Loess and its paleosols represent important sedimentary archives for investigating Quaternary paleoenvironments. However, to interpret these archives, a robust chronostratigraphy is of crucial importance and luminescence dating techniques play a major role in establishing these chronostratigraphies. So far, dominantly loess from the last glacial/interglacial cycle was successfully dated by luminescence dating, caused by specific mineral characteristics and due to methodological problems of the applied luminescence dating techniques. An alternative and innovative approach is represented by the infrared radiofluorescence dating technique (IR/RF), which enables the dating of sediments far beyond the last glacial-interglacial cycle. However, even though the IR/RF dating technique could already successfully be applied to various sediment types, its routine application is not given and the development of a reliable IR/RF dating protocol is challenging. Therefore, basic questions in respect to the behavior of the IR/RF signal to individual measurement parameters need to be answered, a prerequisite to develop a robust measurement protocol for IR/RF dating. Here we apply for a project, which focus on establishing the IR/RF dating technique for coarse grain K-feldspar of loess (> 63 µm). Therefore, different measurements parameters and their impact on the IR/RF dating results will be investigated, to develop a reliable IR-RF measurement protocol. The second objective of this application is the development of a new IR-RF dating protocol for polymineral fine grain loess samples (4 to 11 µm). Because both IR/RF dating techniques, the technique for coarse-grain K Feldspar and polymineral fine grain samples, have a great potential for the dating of loess deposits from the late to middle Pleistocene, the development of the new methods will use loess material from the late to middle Pleistocene, for which already independent age control exists.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants