Optically stimulated luminescence dating techniques and multi-proxy analysis to quantify the timing of the last two major climatic transitions, as recorded by loess-palaeosol sequences

Abstract

The practice of tuning different climate proxies prevents the observation of regional response times of terrestrial archives to global changes. Thus, it is imperative to develop correlation protocols based on absolute chronologies. Loess-palaeosol (L/S) deposits are continental archives of Quaternary paleoclimates and loess is generally considered an ideal material for the application of luminescence dating.

The agreement previously obtained for 10-20 ka ages using different techniques has given us confidence in using the state of the art measurement protocols for young deposits, as confirmed by comparison with independent age control.  Therefore, we propose detailed investigations of loess samples collected in close proximity to the transition to the recent soil, with the purpose of obtaining a temporal quantification of the ending of the Late Tardiglacial and the beginning of the Holocene (i.e. L1/S0 boundary).