Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/T008997/1
Extending capacity for luminescence-based chronology
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor R Bailey, University of Oxford, Geography - SoGE
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor DSG Thomas, University of Oxford, Geography - SoGE
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr SL Burrough, University of Oxford, Geography - SoGE
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Geography - SoGE
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Quaternary Science
- Science-Based Archaeology
- Dating - stimu luminescense
- Palaeoenvironments
- Palaeo proxies
- Quaternary climate change
- Quaternary Science
- Stimulated luminescence
- Earth Surface Processes
- Past environments
- Abstract:
- Without robust age control, reconstructing the past dynamics of the Earth system in response to external forcing is problematic. Chronometry is a critical part of studying past environmenst, climates, ecology, human evolution and human landscape-use. Several excellent methods for dating ancient material exist. In many environmental contexts, however, optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is the only method than can be used, due to the nature of the sediments that preserve the environmental record. The Oxford laboratory has long-running research excellence in studying the last approximately 100,000 years of Earth's terrestrial history, specifically in African and other dryland regions, including Arabia, India and China. These studies have focused on changes in landscape conditions, including ancient lakes and rivers, and on questions of archaeology and human evolution, including responses to environmental change and mobility. The extent and conviction with which such studies can make conclusions is affected strongly by the quality and range of the chronology available. Having greater confidence in the dates derived from analysed sediments, and being able to extend the age range beyond what is currently possible, would allow a host of new research questions to be addressed that would greatly advance these fields. This includes establishing long (up to 1Ma) terrestrial records of climate change, much needed by both the archaeological and modelling communities, making major contributions to our understanding of both human prehistory, past climate changes and, ultimately improvements to model predictions of future climate change. Oxford has been a leader in luminescence dating development and applications for over 40 years. The new laboratory equipment, a VLS luminescence reader and complementary MiDose radiation measurement device, will provide state-of-the-art equipment that will enable new technical developments. VLS analysis facilitates investigation of a new method of measurement, allowing different dating signals to be observed, pushing the dating limit back beyond 1 million years of Earth's history - a significant improvement on current capabilities. Over time, the signals 'fill-up' due to exposure of the sampled sediments to natural background radiation. The signals typically used for optical dating fill-up over the course of around 100,000 years - and it is essential for accurate dating to know this 'filing rate'. The signals observable using the VLS equipment may take over 1 million years to fill, therefore extending our dating capabilities significantly beyond the reliable limits of 'traditional' OSL dating, allowing us to learn a great deal more about Earth's history and that of humans on the landscape over this period. This would represent a step change in OSL applications, creating one of the first UK luminescence labs to date sediments back to >1 million years via the luminescence reader with VLS attachment. MiDose provides the means to measure, in a sophisticated way, the various components of the natural background radiation dose rate of the samples, and therefore to calculate the 'filling rate' with greater confidence. This equipment will allow us to improve determination of both components of a luminescnce age, the accumulated dose and the dose rate. Together, this will provide the opportunity to answer for the first time long-standing environmental and archaeological questions These include, for example, testing climate model outputs with terrestrial evidence for large-scale hydroclimate drivers, and establishing the timing of ancestral human presence in drylands (many importnat ancestral modern human sites are in dryalnd regions), and greatly improving capabilities to reconstruct environmental variability over timescales >100,000 years in environmental contexts where dating methods other than OSL cannot be applied.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/T008997/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Capital
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Capital Call
This grant award has a total value of £114,000
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Equipment |
|---|
| £114,000 |
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