Challenges of dating quartz OSL samples with saturated grains: Lessons from single-grain analyses of low dose-rate samples from Victoria Falls, Zambia

Researchers found that including data from saturated quartz grains significantly impacts the equivalent dose (D e ) values calculated for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, even when using different methods to combine luminescence measurements. This study highlights the importance of accounting for minimum burial dose information contained in saturated grains, which are often rejected due to early OSL signal saturation. The findings suggest that while various techniques have different advantages and disadvantages, their reasonable agreement indicates that the inclusion of data from saturated grains is more crucial than the specific method used. The research involved single-grain analyses of low dose-rate samples from an aeolian sandscarp near Victoria Falls, Zambia, to explore these challenges.

Chapot, M. S., Duller, G. A. T., & Barham, L. S. (2022). Challenges of dating quartz OSL samples with saturated grains: Lessons from single-grain analyses of low dose-rate samples from Victoria Falls, Zambia. Quaternary Geochronology, 72, 101344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101344