Quartz age extension applied to SE Asian cover sands

A significant feature of the surface sediments of southeast Asia is a regionally extensive layer of distinctive red, quartz-rich, cover sand observed throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, and further afield. In many locations, these cover sands immediately overlay a laterite layer containing tektites, known as the Muong Nong type, associated with a large meteorite impact between 750 and 800ka in Indochina. Sections of these cover sands at sites in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have been investigated using field and laboratory profiling, and quartz SAR procedures. In some locations the sections consist of a layer of low-sensitivity quartz with saturated signals overlain by a visibly indistinguishable layer of high-sensitivity quartz with ages less than c. 35ka. Further work has been undertaken to attempt to extend quartz luminescence dating for the older materials, including samples associated with the tektites, using thermally stimulated or transferred luminescence to access traps that are expected to saturate at higher doses. Luminescence was recorded during sample heating and hold, giving thermoluminescence (TL-ramp) and isothermal decay (ID) data, in addition to optically stimulated luminescence after the transfer (Thermally Transferred Optically Stimulated Luminescence, TT-OSL) measurements. These measurements have produced equivalent dose values of up to 250Gy, and ages of 70–125ka, for these older materials, which is significantly younger than would be expected from the association with the tektites. Investigation of the traps associated with these signals has produced properties consistent with prior investigations, suggesting that these are not sufficiently stable at environmental temperatures above 25 °C to permit age extension using these methods.