Thermoluminescence dating of a deep-sea sediment core

Abstract

IN the last decade thermoluminescence dating has been developed for use on archaeological material, principally pottery, that was heated in antiquity¹. Thermoluminescence (TL) is the light emitted by a material when heated and which results from a previous dose of radiation. In the simplest cases the light intensity is proportional to the radiation dose and can be used for determining an unknown dose; when combined with other measurements which yield the dose rate the TL can thus be used to calculate an age. In the case of pottery the event being dated is the last heating of the material to a high temperature, typically 500 °C. The use of TL to date the deposition of ocean sediments which we propose here is similar in the main principle except for the lack of the heating event. We describe here the experimental evidence which indicates that some event which has the same result does occur. We then show that exposure to sunlight could be this event, and finally show that TL dates obtained for an ocean sediment core are in agreement with dates determined independently.