Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments

Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments 

ZENOBIA JACOBS 

BOREAS 

Jacobs, Z. 2008 (November): Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments. Boreas, Vol, 37, pp. 

508–535. 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2008.00054.x. ISSN 0300-9483. 

Luminescence dating techniques have been applied to a range of different types of coastal and marine deposits, 

involving a variety of depositional processes and environments, as a means of addressing an assortment of local, 

regional and global themes. This review provides a brief historical background of 30 years of luminescence dating 

applied to coastal and marine sediments, followed by a discussion of some of the luminescence dating highlights for 

nine major regions of the world. A literature review of 200 readily accessible peer-reviewed journal publications is 

summarised in a table and studies that have made some methodological advances when applying luminescence 

techniques to coastal and marine deposits are discussed in detail. Where possible, a specific theme is explored for 

each region. Potential pitfalls and future prospects of luminescence dating applied to coastal and marine sediments 

are also considered. 

Zenobia Jacobs (e-mail: zenobia@uow.edu.au), GeoQuEST Research Centre, School of Earth and Environmental 

Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; received 18th March 2008, accepted 18th 

July 2008. 

Coastal areas around the world represent one of the 

most populated, extensive, diverse and dynamic landscapes 

on earth. The coastal environment is characterized 

by a large range of landforms and erosional and 

depositional features that are in a process of constant 

change. Natural processes such as eustatic and isostatic 

sea-level change, tectonism, waves, wind and various 

weather phenomena have caused, and are continuing to 

cause, the erosion, accretion and reshaping of coasts. 

The coastlines of the world’s continents measure several 

hundreds of thousands of kilometres in total length 

and a large proportion of human populations live in 

areas along or near the coast. As such, understanding 

the formation of our coasts, and assessing the past, 

present and future impact of change on the evolution of 

our coasts, is therefore important and necessitates the 

use of a reliable and useful chronological tool. 

The potential and desirability of luminescence dating 

methods to determine the magnitude and timing of 

events recorded in coastal deposits have long been recognized. 

Coastal and marine sediments were used in 

both the original development and validation of thermoluminescence 

(TL) dating of unheated sediments 

and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of 

both feldspar and quartz grains (Huntley et al. 

1993a, b). Among the main attractions of luminescence 

dating are: (1) the fact that it can be applied to ubiquitously 

occurring materials (quartz and feldspar grains), 

(2) it dates directly the material and depositional event 

of interest, (3) its applicability over a long time range, 

and (4) its reporting of ages in calendar years. Although 

luminescence dating has been applied to coastal and 

marine sediments since 1979, its routine use on a large 

scale has not yet been achieved. It has been shown to be 

useful in regions where there is a lack of suitable materials 

for other methods, e.g. corals for uranium-series 

(U-series) dating or organic materials for radiocarbon 

( 14 C) dating. Although it has been instrumental in determining 

the age of many coastal features around the 

world, the lack of precision, by comparison to 14 C and 

U-series dating, has prevented it from making breakthrough 

contributions to issues such as the construction 

of a sea-level curve derived from far-field sites located 

on passive margins, even though it has the potential to 

do so. Recent progress in both methodology and technology, 

however, now allows increased precision and 

accuracy. New methodological approaches also allow 

demonstration and explicit testing of the reliability of 

the ages, making luminescence dating a very attractive 

and increasingly used approach. 

A review of luminescence dating applied to such a 

diverse environment is therefore not just challenging 

but necessarily broad. The aim of this review is to provide 

a summary of such studies, indicating their locations, 

the coastal features being dated, the time epoch 

of interest and the broad geological or geomorphological 

theme each study aims to address. By bringing together 

the studies, several interesting trends within 

regions can be observed and these will be discussed. In 

addition, the aim is also to highlight potential pitfalls 

and future prospects of luminescence dating applied to 

young and old coastal and marine sediments. 

Thirty years of luminescence dating applied to 

coastal and marine sediments 

A comprehensive literature survey of luminescence 

dating of sediments over the past 30 years resulted in 

196 readily available peer-reviewed publications in 

DOI 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2008.00054.x r 2008 The Author, Journal compilation r 2008 The Boreas Collegium

BOREAS Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments 509 

which luminescence-dating techniques were applied to 

coastal and marine deposits. From this survey, a total 

of 61 studies employed thermoluminescence (TL) dating 

of quartz or feldspars, 32 studies employed singleand 

multiple-aliquot infrared-stimulated luminescence 

(IRSL) dating of potassium-rich feldspar grains, 26 

studies used a combination of TL and IRSL or optically 

stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of quartz 

grains and 69 studies employed OSL dating of quartz 

grains. Among these are studies that contributed significantly 

to the development, improvement and validation 

of both TL and OSL methods since the very 

beginning. 

Marine sediments extracted from deep-sea cores 

drilled in the Antarctic and North Pacific oceans were 

used to develop the first suitable procedures (the ‘total 

bleach’ and ‘partial bleach’ procedures) for TL dating 

of unheated sediments (Wintle & Huntley 1979a, 1980, 

1982). Initially, it was thought that TL was emitted 

from carbonates (Bothner & Johnson 1969) and radiolaria 

(Huntley & Johnson 1976) found within these 

sediments, but Wintle & Huntley (1979a) demonstrated 

that it was, in fact, primarily the detrital, fine silt feldspar 

grains adhering to the radiolaria that emitted the 

TL that increased with depth below the ocean floor. 

A Pleistocene coastal dune sand from southeast 

South Australia and a modern beach sand from the 

Canadian Pacific coast were likewise used to develop 

and validate the first suitable optical dating technique 

(Huntley et al. 1985a). Quartz grains were stimulated 

with green (514 nm) light from an argon-ion laser and 

were preheated to 2501C. These measurements resulted 

in an age consistent with independent age estimates for 

the dune sand, and a higher than expected, but significantly 

smaller, equivalent dose (D e ) than previously 

obtained using TL dating for the modern beach sand. 

The latter indicated that even though much shorter exposures 

to sunlight are required to empty the trapped 

charge populations used in optical dating, partial 

bleaching may still be a problem in more complex 

depositional environments. 

Even though two breakthrough advances were made 

using coastal and marine sediments to validate the 

techniques of TL and OSL, very few additional studies 

applying these techniques to coastal and marine deposits 

were published during the 1980s. This review identified 

only five additional articles, all using TL dating, 

and those represented a range of locations from marine 

sediments extracted from a core in the Arctic Sea 

(Berger et al. 1984), Hudson Bay in Canada (Forman 

et al. 1987), to Spain and Morocco in the Mediterranean 

(Brückner 1986), the ‘old red sands’ in Sri Lanka 

(Singhvi et al. 1986), the Spencer Gulf (Smith et al. 

1982) and the prominent stranded beach dune sequence 

(Huntley et al. 1985b), both in South Australia. 

The 1990s was a more productive period, both in 

terms of application and methodological developments, 

resulting in the publication of 58 articles. These were 

primarily dominated by TL dating (n = 41), particularly 

TL dating applied to a range of landforms along the 

Australian coast (n = 33). The most significant methodological 

advances were the development of the ‘selective 

bleach’ (e.g. Prescott & Fox 1990; Prescott & 

Mojarrabi 1993) and ‘Australian slide’ (Prescott et al. 

1993) TL procedures, as well as the first single-aliquot 

optical dating procedure (Duller 1991). Both TL procedures 

were developed and tested extensively on the 

800 000-year-old coastal dune sequence in South Australia 

(e.g. Huntley et al. 1993a, 1994a). The ‘selective 

bleach’ involves D e estimation based on only the most 

light sensitive TL peak at 3251C, by separating it from 

the other TL peaks through selective optical bleaching 

using green and longer wavelength light. The ‘Australian 

slide’ involved the use of two sets of aliquots to which 

additive dose and regenerative dose methods were applied 

and the data then compared and, if appropriate, 

combined. The advantage of this method is the detection 

of any sensitivity change that may have occurred during 

the initial bleach of the regenerated aliquots, as well as 

overcoming problems associated with extrapolation of 

additive dose growth curves for older samples. 

These initial TL and optical dating protocols, however, 

both required that many aliquots (typically 

20–50), each consisting of many thousands of sediment 

grains, be used to construct a sample’s dose response. 

With these methods, much of the uncertainty in the D e 

results from the inherent variability of the sensitivities 

of the many thousands of grains that make up each 

aliquot. Furthermore, it is difficult using multiplealiquot 

techniques to produce accurate ages in environments 

where not all the sediment grains have received 

sufficient sunlight exposure prior to final burial (e.g. 

tsunami deposits or storm deposits). Huntley et al. 

(1985a) suggested that an important advantage of optical 

dating over TL dating is that only a single aliquot 

of sediment is required to construct a sample’s growth 

curve. This would allow replicate measurements of D e 

to be generated for the same sample. These provide an 

internal check on the reproducibility of results, thereby 

facilitating the recognition of sample contamination, 

partial bleaching and other problems that may need to 

be addressed before final age determination. Using 

coastal dune sands from the west coast of the North 

Island of New Zealand, Duller (1991, 1994, 1995) developed 

the first single-aliquot procedure for dating 

potassium-rich feldspar grains. Initially, only a small 

number of studies employed single-aliquot procedures 

(e.g. Duller 1996; Wintle et al. 1998; Clarke et al. 1999), 

but these studies stimulated further investigations into 

the use of single aliquots of both feldspar and quartz. 

The benefits of single aliquots, the improved control on 

accuracy and precision, and its applicability to a wider 

range of sediments and depositional environments 

found within the coastal environment were realized.

510 Zenobia Jacobs BOREAS 

This change is reflected in studies carried out since 

2000, where only 9 studies used TL dating, 12 studies 

used TL and IRSL/OSL, 10 studies used multiple-aliquot 

additive dose (MAAD) IRSL and the remaining 

70 studies employed single-aliquot OSL or IRSL. Although 

development of the single-aliquot regenerativedose 

(SAR) procedure of Murray & Wintle (2000) did 

not involve the use of any coastal or marine sediments, 

the success of the method with regard to increased precision 

and accuracy led to a significant increase in the 

number of published studies applied to coastal and 

marine sediments. The first applications using SAR 

appeared in the 2001 LED proceedings published in 

Quaternary Science Reviews. Since then, a third of all 

published studies involving coastal and marine sediments 

have used the SAR procedure, many of which 

focus on obtaining chronologies for very young coastal 

sediments (late-Holocene to modern), where calibration 

of 14 C ages is unreliable (e.g. Brooke et al. 2008c). 

What, when and where? 

Details of the 196 studies are summarized in Table 1. 

For each study, its geographic location, the type of 

landform, feature or sediment dated, relevant epoch 

(Pleistocene or Holocene), luminescence technique used 

(OSL, IRSL or TL), and the theme the study aims to 

address are provided, along with the appropriate reference 

source. 

Among these studies, very many different types of 

features have been dated. The main features include 

beaches, beach ridges, raised beaches, beachrocks, 

marine terraces, aeolianites, foredunes, back-barrier 

dunes or dune cordons, palaeosols, tsunami deposits, 

storm deposits and, to a lesser extent, estuarine and 

tidal-flat sediments. 

An equally diverse number of issues have been addressed 

through the application of luminescence dating 

to coastal deposits. These may be of very local or regional 

concern or are relevant to understanding global 

topics. Issues include, among others: (1) relative sea-level 

change, (2) identification of regionally correlative 

periods of increased aeolian activity in coastal zones, 

(3) regional neotectonic changes and the determination 

of coastal uplift and subsidence rates, (4) development 

of spits and barrier islands, (5) timing and frequency of 

increased storminess, (6) timing and recurrence intervals 

of tsunamis, (7) reconstruction of the spatial and 

temporal development of local coastlines, (8) effects of 

climate change and rising sea levels on past, current and 

future human populations to improve coastal management 

planning, and (9) the possible effects of global 

warming on ‘soft’ coasts. Many of these topics are specific 

to certain regions of the world. Table 1 is divided 

into nine geographical regions, namely: 1) Africa, 2) 

Australia, 3) Remote Oceania (including New Zealand 

and the Pacific Islands), 4) the Americas, 5) Asia, 6) 

Middle East, 7) Mediterranean, 8) northwestern Europe, 

and 9) the oceans and seas. The locations are 

plotted on a map of the world in Fig. 1, where the studies 

are distinguished by the luminescence technique 

used. Table 1 and Fig. 1 show that most dating studies 

are clustered around the coasts of Australia and New 

Zealand, northwestern Europe and the Mediterranean, 

South Africa and North America. This is in stark contrast 

to those many hundreds of thousands of kilometres 

of coastline that remain undated by 

luminescence methods, notably large parts of Asia, 

Canada, South America and Africa. Some of the major 

studies within each of these regions and their relevance 

to the general themes are discussed below. Where patterns 

emerge within a region, these are discussed. 

Africa 

There has only been a single study conducted on coastal 

sediments outside southern Africa and the Mediterranean 

coast of North Africa. This was on the very substantial 

deposits bordering the Atlantic Ocean near 

Casablanca, Morocco, spanning the last one million 

years (Rhodes et al. 2006). The sequence is constructed 

from deposits at a number of different sites (Reddad 

Ben Ali, Oudad J’mel, Sidi Abderhamane and Thomas 

Quarries), each of which has a series of coupled marineaeolian 

deposits that are thought to represent individual 

interglacial periods. Some of the units are 

associated with important archaeological and 

palaeoanthropological finds. The chronologies obtained 

from this study are ambiguous, with significant 

age reversals occurring when a MAAD OSL procedure 

was used and younger than expected ages were obtained 

using conventional, component-resolved or 

slow-component SAR OSL. The study, however, is 

interesting in regard to the application of componentresolved 

OSL, where one of the slow components in 

quartz (S3 of Singarayer & Bailey 2003) was used to 

extend the age range of luminescence dating. The experimental 

details of this dating technique are provided 

in Singarayer & Bailey (2003) and Singarayer (2002). 

The oldest age obtained was 948599 kyr, not dissimilar 

to a more precise, conventional SAR age of 

989208 kyr. The latter, however, is questionable, since 

the D e value is clearly obtained from a fully saturated 

dose response curve (see Rhodes et al. 2006: fig. 9b) and 

this is not recommended. The slow component age is 

also very imprecise (60% relative error), which limits 

its practical use. At lower doses, its precision is comparable 

to that of SAR, and in many cases improved 

due to the linear growth of this component to much 

higher doses than can be achieved using the fast component 

and conventional SAR procedures. But its use 

is limited to those sediments (i.e. aeolian) that were


Table 1. Comprehensive list of all luminescence dating studies applied to coastal and marine deposits published in readily available peerreviewed 

journals. The appropriate reference sources are provided for each study and are matched with a specific location or region assigned a 

reference number that is also shown on the map of the world in Fig. 1. Also provided are the types of coastal or marine deposits dated, the 

luminescence method(s) used in the study or studies and the relevant time epoch. The latter is abbreviated to EP (Early Pleistocene), MP 

(Middle Pleistocene), LP (Late Pleistocene), H (Holocene), EH (early Holocene), MH (mid-Holocene) and LH (late Holocene). Finally, each 

study or group of studies was assigned to one or more of 10 broadly defined themes that best describe the overall aim(s) of the study. These 

themes are: A = sea-level change; B = regional-scale periods of increased aeolian activity; C = neotectonic changes; D = development of spits 

or barrier islands; E = timing and frequency of increased storminess; F = timing and recurrence intervals of tsunamis; G = reconstruction of 

the spatial and temporal development of local coastlines; H = effects of global warming on ‘soft’ coasts; I = archaeology and palaeoanthropology; 

and J = luminescence methodology studies. 

Ref No. Location Deposit types Age range Method Theme Reference 

Africa 

South Africa 

1 Langebaan aeolianite LP IRSL J Roberts & Berger (1997) 

2 Dias Beach dune (aeolianite) MP TL G Shaw et al. (2001) 

3 Die Kelders dune (cave) LP TL, OSL, 

IRSL 

J Feathers & Bush (2000) 

4 Agulhas Plain dunes MH-LH OSL B, G Carr et al. (2007) 

5 Still Bay dunes (aeolianite, 

cave) palaeosols 

LP OSL I, J Roberts et al. (2008); 

Henshilwood et al. 

(2002); Jacobs et al. 

(2003a, b, 2006) 

6 Mossel Bay dune (cave) LP OSL I Marean et al. (2007) 

7 Agulhas aeolianites LP OSL B Carr et al. (2007) 

8 Agulhas & 

aeolianites1barrier MP-LP OSL B, G Bateman et al. (2004) 

Wilderness 

dunes 

9 Wilderness barrier dunes MP-LP TL G Illenberger (1996) 

10 Klasies River cave dune LP TL, OSL, I Feathers (2002) 

IRSL 

11 East London aeolianites1beach 

rocks 

LP OSL A, I Jacobs & Roberts (in 

press) 

East London aeolianite LP TL, IRSL J Vogel et al. (1999) 

12 Maputaland aeolianite1beach MP, LP, H TL, IRSL B, G Porat & Botha (2008) 

rocks 

13 Hlabane to 

St.Lucia 

dunes LP TL, IRSL G Sudan et al. (2004) 

Mozambique 

14 Inhaca and 

Bazaruto 

aeolianite1beach 

rock 

LP, H OSL A, B, D, G Armitage et al. (2006) 

Morocco 

15 Casablanca aeolian EP, MP, H OSL, TL A, I, J Rhodes et al. (2006) 

Australia 

Western Australia 

16 Rottnest Island, 

Perth & Point Peron 

17 North west Cape, 

Coral Bay & 

Shark Bay 

18 Cape Range Peninsula, 

WA 

19 Cape St. Lambert, East 

Kimberleys 

aeolianites LP TL B Price et al. (2001) 

aeolianites LP TL B Kendrick et al. (1991) 

marine LP, H OSL J Olley et al. (2004a) 

dunes MH-LH TL B Lees et al. (1992) 

South Australia 

20 Eyre Peninsula aeolianites o630 ka TL A, B Belperio (1995) 

21 Spencer Gulf marine sediments LP, H TL J Smith et al. (1982) 

22 South-east South 

Australia 

dune cordons MP-LP IRSL, TL, 

OSL 

A, B, C, G Huntley et al. (1983, 

1985a, b, 1993a, b, 

1994a, b, 1996); Huntley 

& Prescott (2001); 

Yoshida et al. (2000); 

Banerjee et al. (2003); 

Murray-Wallace et al. 

(1996, 1999) 

23 Guichen Bay beach ridges H OSL G Murray-Wallace et al. 

(2002a); Bristow & 

Pucillo (2006)


Table 1 (continued) 


24 Normanville embayment fill LP TL C Bourman et al. (1999) 

Victoria 

25 Point Ritchie aeolianite LP TL B, J Sherwood et al. (1994) 

26 Gippsland Lakes region coastal barriers LP TL G Bryant & Price (1997) 

27 Nepean Peninsula aeolianites LP TL B Zhou et al. (1994) 

New South Wales 

28 Lord Howe Island aeolianites LP TL A, B Woodroffe et al. (1995); 

Price et al. (2001); 

Woodroffe et al. (2006) 

29 Southern coast tsunami LP, H TL, OSL F Price et al. (1999); Switzer 

et al. (2006); Young 

et al. (1995, 1996, 1997); 

Bryant et al. (1996, 

1997b) 

30 Gillards Beach & beach sediments LP TL A Young et al. (1993a) 

Middle Lagoon 

31 Steamers Beach aeolianite LP, H TL B Wheeler (1995) 

32 Entire coastline marine sands MP, LP TL A Thom et al. (1994); 

North coast foredunes H OSL G 

Bryantet al. (1997a); 

Goodwin et al. (2006) 

33 Illawara coast shore platforms & 

aeolian dunes 

LP TL A, B Brooke et al. (1994); 

Bryant et al. (1990) 

34 Central & South coast transgressive dunes H TL G Young et al. (1993b) 

35 Sandon Point raised marine 

deposits 

LP, H TL A Bryant et al. (1992) 

Queensland 

36 Cooloola & North 

Stradbrooke 

sand dunes EP TL B Tejan-Kella et al. (1990); 

Yoshida et al. (2000) 

OSL J 

37 Moreton Bay indurated sands LP, H TL, OSL G Brooke et al. (2008b) 

38 Keppel Bay beach1estuarine H OSL G Brooke et al. (2006; 

2008c); Bostock et al. 

(2007) 

Fraser Island beach H OSL Boyd et al. (2008) 

39 Northern Queensland beach ridge1storm H OSL J Olley et al. (2004b) 

surges 

40 Ramsay Bay, North barrier dunes H TL G Pye & Rhodes (1985) 

Queensland 

41 Western Cape York marine & dune LP TL A, B Lees et al. (1993) 

42 Gulf of Carpentaria marine LP TL, OSL A Chivas et al. (2001); 

Shulmeister et al. 

(1993) 

Northern Territory 

43 Cape Arnhem dune podzols LP, H TL B Lees et al. (1990, 1995) 

44 Coburg Peninsula coastal landforms LP TL G Woodroffe et al. (1992) 

Remote Oceania 

45 Great Barrier Island tsunami deposits LH IRSL F Nichol et al. (2003) 

46 Bream Bay beach ridge LP IRSL G Nichol (2002) 

47 Canterbury, Banks lake and lagoon MP-LP, H TL C, G Shulmeister et al. (1999); 

Peninsula 

48 Leithfield, North 

Canterbury 

dune ridges H TL G Shulmeister & Kirk 

(1996) 

49 Otago loess and sand LP OSL F Kennedy et al. (2007) 

50 Otago marine 

terrace1alluvial 

fan 

LP IRSL, TL C Litchfield & Lian 

(2004); Rees-Jones 

et al. (2000) 

51 Knights Point, 

Westland 

marine LP OSL C Cooper & Kostro 

(2006) 

52 Koputaroa, North coastal dunes LP IRSL G Duller (1996) 

Island 

53 Fiji aeolian dunes H OSL J Anderson et al. (2006)




Americas 

South America 

54 Peru & Ecuador marine terraces MP-LP IRSL A, C Pedoja et al. (2006a, b) 

55 Southern Brazil aeolianites MP OSL, TL A, B Giannini et al. (2007) 

56 Brazil marine terraces LP TL, OSL A, C Baretto et al. (2002) 

57 Brazil marine & aeolian LP, H TL, OSL A, B Tatumi et al. (2003) 

United States of America and Canada 

58 Gulf of Mexico 

(Florida to Texas) 

coastal plain terraces 

& dunes 

MP-LP TL, OSL G Otvos (2004, 2005); Blum 

et al. (2002) 

59 Florida storm, tidal, beach modern TL J Rink & Pieper (2001) 

60 Florida beach ridges LH OSL D, G Lopez & Rink (2007, 

2008) 

61 Florida dunes, midden LH OSL G, I Thompson et al. (2007) 

62 Florida beach ridges H OSL E Rink & Forrest (2005) 

63 North Carolina & 

Virginia 

back-barrier dunes LH TL, IRSL, 

OSL 

B Havholm et al. (2004); 

Berger et al. (1991, 

2003) 

64 North Carolina beach ridges LP-H OSL B Mallinson et al. (2008) 

65 Massachusetts beach ridge MH IRSL A Van Heteren et al. (2000) 

66 Maine storm deposits LH OSL E Buynevich et al. (2007) 

67 New Brunswick sandy spit H IRSL D Ollerhead et al. (1994); 

Ollerhead & Davidson- 

Arnott (1995) 

68 Hudson Bay raised marine LP TL A Forman et al. (1987) 

sediments 

69 Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, aeolian dunes LP OSL G Bateman & Murton (2006) 

Canada 

70 Alaska marine sand LP IRSL A Kaufman et al. (2001) 

71 Washington State tsunami LH IRSL F Huntley & Clague (1996) 

&British Columbia 

72 Oregon coastal dune sands H OSL G Jungner et al. (2001) 

73 Oregon tsunami H IRSL F Ollerhead et al. (2001) 

74 Oregon, California coastal dunes, 

estuarine 

LP, H TL B Peterson et al. (2007); 

Berger et al. (1991) 

Asia 

75 Japan, Kurosaki marine terrace LP TL, OSL C, J Tanaka et al. (1997) 

76 Korea, south-eastern marine terraces LP OSL, ITL C, J Choi et al. (2003a, b; 2006) 

peninsula 

77 Korea, west coast tidal flat LH IRSL A Hong et al. (2003) 

78 China, Bohai Bay oyster reef H OSL, IRSL A Zhang et al. (2007) 

79 Taiwan, south-western fluvial deposits LP, H OSL C Chen et al. (2003) 

coastal plain 

80 China, Fujia and west 

Guangdong 

‘‘old red sands’’ H OSL B Wu et al. (2000); Zhang 

et al. (2008) 

81 Hong Kong inner shelf sediments MP-H TL, OSL, A Yim et al. (2002, 2008) 

IRSL 

82 Vietnam, south-eastern 

coast 

coastal barrier LP TL G Murray-Wallace et al. 

(2002b) 

83 Malaysia, Perak alluvium LP TL G Kamaludin et al. (1993) 

84 India, Bay of Bengal tsunami modern OSL F, J Murari et al. (2007) 

85 Sri Lanka coastal dunes LP TL B Singhvi et al. (1986) 

Middle East 

Oman 

86 Arabian Sea deep-sea marine LP-H OSL J Stokes et al. (2003) 

sands 

87 Wahiba Sands coastal sands LP, H IRSL A, B Preusser et al. (2005) 

United Arab Emirates 

88 Dubai marine H OSL G, J Zander et al. (2007) 

Mediterranean 

Israel 

89 Northern coastal plain aeolianite1palaeosols 

LP IRSL, OSL A, B, Sivan & Porat (2004)




90 Carmel coastal plain aeolianites1beach LP IRSL A, B, Frechen et al. (2004) 

rocks 

91 Carmel coast nearshore marine sed LP-H IRSL, TL A Porat et al. (2003) 

92 Central coastal plain aeolianites and LP, H IRSL B Porat et al. (2004) 

palaeosols 

93 Sharon coastal plain aeolianites LP, H IRSL B Frechen et al. (2002) 

94 Netanya aeolianite1palaeosols 

LP, H IRSL, TL B Engelmann et al. 

(2001) 

95 Givat Olga aeolianites LP, H IRSL, TL B Frechen et al. (2001) 

96 Tel Aviv aeolianite LP IRSL B Porat & Wintle (1995) 

North Africa 

97 Egypt, Arab Gulf Coast aeolianites LP, H OSL B El-Asmar & Wood 

(2000) 

98 Tunisia, Hergla & marine1tsunami LP OSL A, F Wood (1994) 

Chebba 

99 Tunisia beach1aeolian LP OSL J Nathan & Mauz 

100 Morocco, Teutan & 

Kebdana 

¨ 

(2008) 

aeolianites LP TL B Bruckner (1986) 

Italy 

101 Crotone peninsula marine terraces LP IRSL, TL C Mauz & Hassler (2000) 

102 Calabrian peninsula marine terraces LP TL C Balescu et al. (1997) 

103 Tyrrhenian coast dune ridges LH IRSL G Rendell et al. (2007) 

104 Tyrrhenian coast marine terraces LP, H IRSL C Mauz (1999) 

105 Ligurian coast beach LP OSL A, C Federici & Pappalardo 

(2006) 

106 Sicily marine terraces LP TL C Mauz et al. (1997); 

Antonioli et al. 

(2006) 

Spain 

107 Tarragona aeolianite LP TL C Bruckner (1986) 

108 Mallorca aeolianites MP OSL KJ Nielsen et al. (2004) 

109 Valencia aeolianite LP TL B Fumanal (1995) 

110 Huelva coast aeolian 

dunes1palaeosols 

LP OSL G Zazo et al. (2005) 

Portugal 

111 Boca do Rio, Algarve tsunami modern IRSL F Dawson et al. (1995) 

112 Western coast aeolian dune H IRSL E, G Clarke & Rendell 

(2006); De Carvalho 

et al. (2006); 

Thomas et al. (2008) 

Northwestern Europe 

France 

113 Sangatte raised beaches MP TL A, C Balescu et al. (1991, 

1992) 

114 Aquitaine coast aeolian dunes H IRSL E, G Clarke et al. (1999; 

2002) 

115 Northern Brittany gravel1loess LP OSL G Regnauld et al. (2003) 

116 Normandy marine sands MP-LP OSL A, C Coutard et al. (2006) 

England 

117 Scilly Isles tsunami historical OSL F Banerjee et al. (2001) 

118 Dungeness beach ridges H OSL G Roberts & Plater 

(2007) 

119 North Norfolk coast intertidal sediments 

& sand dunes 

H IRSL G Boomer & Horton 

(2006); Knight et al. 

(1998) 

120 East Yorkshire aeolian1beach LP TL, OSL G Bateman & Catt (1996) 

121 Northumberland coast coastal dunes H IRSL G Wilson et al. (2001) 

122 Tees estuary estuarine H TL G Plater & Poolton 

(1992) 

123 Sefton coast aeolian H OSL G Pye et al. (1995) 

Range of locations variety modern variety J Richardson (2001)




Scotland 

124 Orkney Isles aeolian1storm 

deposits 

LH OSL B, E Sommerville et al. 

E, F 

F 

(2003, 2007); Hall 

et al. (2006); 

Hansom & Hall 

(2008) 

125 Shetland Isles sands LP IRSL, TL B Hall et al. (2002) 

Ireland 

126 Northeast coast beach ridges1dunes H IRSL A Orford et al. (2003) 

127 North coast coastal dunes H IRSL, OSL B, E Wilson et al. (2004) 

128 Dingle Bay dune sands LH IRSL B Wintle et al. (1998) 

Wales 

129 Aberffraw coastal dunes LH OSL B Bailey et al. (2001) 

Denmark 

130 Skallingen Spit barrier-spit dunes LH OSL A, D, E Aagaard et al. (2007) 

131 Wadden Sea tidal LH OSL H, J Madsen et al. 

(2007a, b) 

132 Wadden Sea estuarine LH OSL A, H, J Madsen et al. (2005) 

133 Jutland beach ridge1aeolian 

sand 

H OSL A, G Nielsen et al. (2006); 

Clemmensen et al. 

(2001a, 2006) 

B, E Murray & 

Clemmensen (2001) 

Strickertsson et al. 

(2001) 

134 Skagerrak & Kattegat aeolian dunes LH OSL B, E Clemmensen & 

Murray (2006) 

135 Gammelmark marine1aeolian LP OSL A, J Murray & Funder (2003) 

136 Northwestern Jutland sand dunes LH OSL B, E Clemmensen et al. (2001b) 

Germany 

137 North Sea tidal flat LH OSL A, H Mauz & Bungenstock 

(2007) 

Netherlands 

138 Texel Island coastal dunes modern OSL G, H, J Ballarini et al. (2003, 

2007); Van Heteren 

et al. (2006) 

G 

Lithuania 

139 Baltic Sea marine sediments H IRSL G Bitinas et al. (2001) 

Oceans and Seas 

140 Baltic Sea marine H OSL A Kortekaas et al. (2007) 

Arctic Sea deep-sea sediments LP-H OSL J Jakobsson et al. (2003) 

Arctic Sea marine LP-H IRSL J Berger (2006) 

Arctic Sea continental shelf H TL J Berger et al. (1984) 

North Pacific & 

Antarctic Oceans 

deep-sea sediments LP TL J Wintle & Huntley 

(1979a, b, 1980) 

18 Northwest Australia deep-sea sediments LP-H OSL J Olley et al. (2004a) 

86 Arabian Sea deep-sea sediments LP-H OSL J Stokes et al. (2003) 

exposed for a long duration (i.e. several days) to sunlight 

only (Singarayer et al. 2000). 

At the other end of Africa, along the southeastern 

African coast, Porat & Botha (2008) reported 57 ages 

from which they constructed a luminescence chronology 

for dune formation on the Maputaland coastal 

plain since marine isotope stage (MIS) 11. They used a 

MAAD TL procedure applied to potassium-rich feldspar 

grains to date beyond the effective limits of quartz 

OSL dating, and used a MAAD or SAAD (singlealiquot 

additive dose) IRSL method for the younger 

samples (o100 kyr). The oldest finite MAAD TL age 

obtained was 20313 kyr, similar to the oldest MAAD 

IRSL age of 21622 kyr. The advantage of TL over 

IRSL to extend the age range for potassium-rich feldspars 

was therefore not realized. 

Porat & Botha (2008) obtained ages for the Isipingo 

Formation, among others, which represents the


25° 155° 85° 

Greenland 

Iceland 

Asia 

North America 

Europe 

Japan 

23.5° 

Africa 

South America 

0° 

Australia 

23.5° 

New Zealand 

25° 155° 

85° 

Fig. 1. Map of the world indicating all study locations where luminescence dating has been used to obtain chronologies for coastal or marine 

deposits, referred to in Table 1. Green squares, red stars and blue circles designate sites of TL, IRSL and OSL dating studies, respectively. 

aeolianites limited to the coastal barrier. They and Armitage 

et al. (2006) have shown that some, but not all, of 

the coastal aeolianite outcrops are associated with the 

MIS 5 sea-level maxima and interstadials. Porat & 

Botha’s age estimate of 20313 kyr is consistent with an 

earlier, MIS 7, sea-level highstand. Perhaps more 

surprising is the age estimate of 17924 kyr and a number 

of estimates around 65 kyr, which are associated with 

the transitions from MIS 7 to 6 and MIS 5 to 4, respectively. 

At both stages, the sea level was between 60 and 

80 m lower than at present (e.g. Waelbroeck et al. 2002). 

The general pattern of ages, clustered around the last 

few interglacial sea-level maxima, is similar to what has 

been observed along the southern Cape coast of South 

Africa. A number of studies here have used SAR OSL 

methods to determine the timing of aeolianite and 

beachrock formation (e.g. Jacobs et al. 2003a, b, 2006; 

Bateman et al. 2004; Jacobs & Roberts in press) to assess 

the association between dune formation and changes 

in sea level. OSL ages obtained for beachrock at four 

locations along the coast at Nahoon in the Eastern 

Cape (Jacobs & Roberts in press), and at Sedgefield, 

Great Brak River and Agulhas, resulted in a combined 

weighted mean age estimate of 1283 kyr. Beachrock 

provides direct evidence of a former sea-level highstand, 

and these age estimates are consistent with independent 

estimates of 1261.7 kyr (based on a compilation of 

U-series ages) for the MIS 5e maximum (Waelbroeck 

et al. 2008). At these sites, aeolianites conformably 

overlie the beachrock and ages obtained for these aeolianites 

range between 115 and 125 kyr, which confirms 

their marine-aeolian association. In some sedimentary 

sequences, there are also additional aeolianite members 

with ages clustering around 90–100 kyr and 80 kyr. 

These are, in most cases, separated from the MIS 5e 

aeolianite by a protosol, indicating a period of quiescence 

followed by dune formation during the MIS 5c 

and 5a interstadials. This pattern is also reflected in the 

dating of dune sands trapped in the Pinnacle Point Cave 

13B archaeological site (Marean et al. 2007). Here, two 

dune-forming events have been dated using OSL to 

120 kyr and 90 kyr. The youngest of these is capped 

by a flowstone which has been dated by U-series to 

90 kyr, verifying the veracity of the OSL ages and the 

general patterns observed along the coast. 

In detail, however, the pattern is complex, reflecting 

the observations of Porat & Botha (2008) along the 

Maputaland coast and other studies further afield in the 

Mediterranean and Australia. There is some evidence 

of pulses of dune formation during glacial periods. An 

example is the stack of aeolianite preserved along and 

below the cliff face at Blombos Cave, an important archaeological 

site near the town of Still Bay in South 

Africa. These aeolianites were dated to the transition 

between MIS 5 and 4 at 70 kyr, and their age equivalent 

is found as an uncemented dune sand overlying 

Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological layers inside 

the cave (Jacobs et al. 2003a, b, 2006). This 70 kyr 

dune-forming event has also been recorded in the 

Wilderness seaward dune cordon by Bateman et al. 

(2004). Further dune pulses during glacial periods are 

also recorded during MIS 3 at 392 kyr (Carr et al.


2007) and MIS 6 at 160 kyr and 175–180 kyr. As a 

first pass comparison with the mean global sea-level 

curve of Waelbroeck et al. (2002), it is interesting to 

note that many of these dune pulses are associated with 

smaller-scale fluctuations in relative sea level. The continental 

shelf around the southern Cape coast is gently 

sloping and shallow, so any changes in sea level, wind 

direction and increased windiness may result in massive 

entrainment of large quantities of sand, resulting in 

dune formation. 

The southern Cape coast of South Africa is also an 

important region archaeologically, where cave deposits 

dated using luminescence dating techniques, contain 

evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens (e.g. Feathers 

& Bush 2000; Feathers 2002) and their ability to behave 

in a symbolic fashion (e.g. Henshilwood et al. 2002, 

2004; Jacobs et al. 2006; Tribolo et al. 2006; Marean 

et al. 2007). The presence of Homo sapiens and other 

animals, such as elephants, is also known from footprints 

preserved in some of the aeolianite units (Roberts 

& Berger 1997; Roberts et al. 2008; Jacobs & Roberts in 

press). Understanding the interplay between dune formation, 

fluctuating sea levels and human populations 

living in the coastal environment provides insights into 

when these cave sites would have been occupied and 

why archaeological materials have been preserved. For 

example, at both Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point 

Cave 13B, dunes sealed the caves at different times for 

considerable durations (many tens of thousands of 

years), making the sites unavailable as living spaces for 

humans (Jacobs et al. 2003a, b; Marean et al. 2007). 

This, to some extent, explains the considerable occupational 

hiatuses that can be observed in the archaeological 

record and, at the same time, provides reasons 

for its good preservation. 

Australia 

The vast majority of luminescence studies that involve 

Australian coastal and marine sediments have used TL 

dating to derive the chronologies. There are 33 TL studies 

(see Table 1), 1 IRSL (Huntley et al. 1993b) and 10 

OSL studies (e.g. Huntley et al. 1985b, 1994b, 1996; 

Yoshida et al. 2000; Murray-Wallace et al. 2002a; Olley 

et al. 2004a, b; Brooke et al. 2006; Switzer et al. 2006; 

Bostock et al. 2007). These studies primarily address 

two broad themes: Pleistocene and Holocene dune formation 

and their relation to glacial–interglacial cycles, 

and the timing and frequency of tsunami events. 

The geographic area that has received most attention 

with regard to investigation of the broader chronological 

history of Pleistocene and Holocene dune formation 

in Australia is the coastal plain between 

Coorong and Mount Gambier in southeast South 

Australia (Fig. 2B). Dunes, in the form of Holocene 

relict foredunes and Pleistocene relict barrier dunes, 

span almost the entire last 800 000 years or 25 marine 

A 

δ 18 O ( ) 

B 

–2 

–1 

0 

Robe 

Woakwine 

West Dairy 

East Dairy 

Reedy Creek 

West Avenue 

East Avenue 

Ardune 

Baker 

Peacock 

Woolumbool 

Stewart 

Harper 

West Naracoorte 

East Naracoorte 

100 

75 

50 

25 

0 

0 200 400 600 800 1000 

Age (kyr) 

WA 

NT 

Coorong 

SA 

QLD 

NSW 

V 

C 

Luminescence age (kyr) 

800 

600 

400 

200 

isotope stages (Fig. 2A). The Holocene dune sequences 

formed as a result of progradation under conditions of 

rapid sediment supply (Murray-Wallace et al. 2002a), 

whereas the Pleistocene sequence represents deposition 

during successive sea-level highstands, with each barrier 

dune spatially separated as a result of steady tectonic 

uplift of the land surface (Murray-Wallace et al. 

1996, 2002a) (Fig. 2A). Dating the Holocene relict 

dunes provides an opportunity to test how well the 

traps that give rise to the OSL and TL signals are 

bleached, and how well one can resolve ages towards 

the lower range of luminescence dating techniques. By 

contrast, the Pleistocene dune sequence offers the opportunity 

to test the upper limit of the dating technique, 

alongside its accuracy. 

TL and IRSL methods were applied to Holocene 

foredunes at Robe I (Huntley et al. 1993a, b, 1994a) and 

Sea level (m) 

0 

0 200 600 1000 

Independent age (kyr) 

Fig. 2. A. A cross-section of the Coorong coastal plain from Robe on 

the coast, inland to Naracoorte, showing the major dune cordons, 

some of which were dated using TL, IRSL and OSL. Also shown is a 

d 18 O time curve showing the matching between sea-level high stands 

and corresponding dune cordons (modified from Huntley & Prescott 

2001). B. An outline map of Australia showing the location of the 

Coorong coastal plain in southeast South Australia. C. A plot of TL 

ages versus independent ages.


the SAR OSL method to a series of relict foredunes on 

the Coorong coastal plain at Guichen Bay (Murray- 

Wallace et al. 2002a). Effectively, modern ages were 

obtained for the Robe I dune using both TL and IRSL, 

while an age of 515 yr was measured for the modern 

foredune at Long Beach using OSL. Sunlight bleaching 

during aeolian transport therefore seems sufficient in 

this region. To test the ability to precisely resolve the 

age of young dunes, OSL dating was applied to a series 

of the Guichen Bay relict foredunes. Ages were largely 

in sequential order and demonstrated a very fast initial 

rate of progradation (between 5 kyr and 4 kyr), followed 

by a more gradual and linear rate (after 4 kyr). 

This study, therefore, indicated the potential of OSL 

dating to provide accurate and precise chronologies, 

resulting in useful insights into the rate and nature of 

foredune development. 

Geological information linking the Pleistocene dunes 

to successive high sea-level stands, and chronological 

information in the form of some U-series ages (Schwebel 

1984), amino acid racemization ages (Murray- 

Wallace et al. 2001) and a palaeomagnetic reversal 

(Brunhes-Matuyama) found between the West and 

East Naracoorte ranges (Idnurm & Cook 1980), provided 

an excellent testing ground for the performance 

of a range of luminescence methods over a significant 

time range. Several luminescence studies have now 

used this dune sequence to explicitly test the reliability 

of various luminescence dating methods as applied to 

coastal sediments. Many of these studies resulted in 

important methodological advances that subsequently 

influenced the field for many years. 

Huntley et al. (1993a, 1994a, b) demonstrated satisfactory 

agreement between the MAAD TL ages on 

quartz for dunes deposited between 0 and 500 kyr and 

the independent ages and d 18 O record, but uncertainties 

associated with both D e and dose rate for the samples 

from the West and East Naracoorte dunes (the oldest in 

the sequence) produced indefinite results (Fig. 2C). 

Huntley & Prescott (2001) later applied an improved 

methodology involving a 33 h preheat at 1601C to 

empty the traps that give rise to the 2801C TL peak. 

This adjustment to their measurement procedures resulted 

in superior preheat plateaus and, thus, improved 

reliability of the TL ages, but still did not resolve those 

ages older than 500 kyr. This led them to suggest that 

the upper limit of TL dating is 250 Gy. To better estimate 

the duration of the last interglacial Woakwine 

barrier dune, Murray-Wallace et al. (1999) also applied 

TL dating, but to samples that were collected explicitly 

from sedimentary facies that represent the transgressive 

phase, last interglacial maximum and the regressive 

phases, as well as an older aeolianite in the core of the 

barrier dune. They obtained ages consistent with previous 

TL estimates and with expectations for the transgressive 

and maximum phases, but the ages for the 

samples associated with the regressive phases and the 

dune core were problematic. This demonstrates the 

complications arising from different modes of formation 

of these dunes, which is important when improved 

accuracy is required alongside greater precision. 

Huntley et al. (1993b) also applied a MAAD-IRSL 

method to potassium-rich feldspar inclusions in quartz 

for a number of those samples that they had measured 

using TL (Huntley et al. 1993a). The ages were consistent 

within errors, but systematically younger (by less 

than 10%), which they suggest may have been due to 

anomalous fading for which they did not correct. 

Banerjee et al. (2003) applied the now widely used SAR 

procedure to quartz grains and also found good agreement 

with independent estimates over the last 250 kyr. 

They attempted to date the much older West Naracoorte 

dune, but age underestimates and significantly different 

results depending on the methodology that was used 

were obtained. Finally, Yoshida et al. (2000) used the 

SAR OSL method and applied it to single grains from 

the Baker (460–490 kyr), West Naracoorte (800–870 kyr) 

and East Naracoorte (780–990 kyr) dunes. They identified 

a small number of ‘supergrains’, which are quartz 

grains that show unusually high saturation doses, and 

obtained ages that were in agreement with independent 

ages for the Baker and West Naracoorte samples, 

but that underestimated the expected age of the East 

Naracoorte sample. A problem associated with these 

grains is that it will be difficult to discern, in the absence 

of independent age control, whether or not the D e values 

obtained are reliable, given that so few grains yielded 

realistic age estimates. 

In summary, therefore, the luminescence chronologies 

obtained using various different methods applied to the 

southeast South Australian relict barrier dunes confirm a 

dune sequence increasing in age inland from the coast, 

controlled by changes in Quaternary sea levels. 

Extensive tracts of aeolianite and barrier dunes are 

also found elsewhere along the Australian coast. TL 

dating applied to these deposits in locations such as the 

continental coast near Perth, Western Australia (Price 

et al. 2001), Point Richie in Victoria (Sherwood et al. 

1994), the Nepean Peninsula, Victoria (Zhou et al. 

1994) and Lord Howe Island (Woodroffe et al. 1995; 

Price et al. 2001) also suggests that aeolianite formation 

occurred at the end of, or slightly after, the last interglacial, 

thereby linking aeolian deposition to changes in 

sea level. In other locations, the TL chronologies suggest 

more complex depositional patterns. Along the 

northwestern coast (Kendrick et al. 1991), Rottnest Island 

(Price et al. 2001) and most of the east coast (e.g. 

Bryant et al. 1990, 1997a; Bryant & Price 1997), aeolian 

deposition has also been observed during the last glacial 

period (MIS 2 and 3). Dune formation during the 

Pleistocene along the entire Australian coast was thus 

influenced by changes in sea level and provides valuable 

information about palaeoenvironments during glacial 

periods when sea levels were lower.


Remote Oceania 

Apart from a single study in Fiji (Anderson et al. 2006), 

all other studies in which luminescence dating procedures 

have been used to obtain coastal chronologies 

relate to sediments along the coast of New Zealand. 

Perhaps it is not surprising that the greatest proportion 

of these studies involve some aspect of tectonics. New 

Zealand is located at the boundary of the Australian 

and Pacific Plates, resulting in significant uplift, fault 

activity and the occurrence of tsunamis. Flights of 

marine terraces or their remnants are widely distributed 

and have been the subject of many studies. Many of 

these terraces occur at elevations substantially higher 

than expected based on eustatic sea-level change during 

the late Quaternary (5 m). This suggests that such 

marine terraces are tectonically or isostatically uplifted. 

One of the key parameters needed to determine tectonic 

uplift rates is a reliable estimate of the age of a marine 

terrace, and as yet there are only a few numerical age 

estimates for marine terraces. Cooper & Kostro (2006) 

obtained a last interglacial (1237 kyr) OSL age for an 

uplifted (113 m a.m.s.l.) marine shoreline deposit at 

Knights Point, Westland, resulting in a time-integrated 

uplift rate of 0.86 mm/yr relative to the Australian 

plate. 

On the east coast of South Island, in coastal Otago, 

Litchfield & Lian (2004) collected samples from raised 

beach sands in close proximity to the Akatore Fault 

system. They obtained ages of 11712 kyr and 

11713 kyr using IRSL and TL dating of quartz, respectively, 

suggesting terrace formation during MIS 5e 

(sea-level maximum) at a location only 300 m from the 

Akatore Fault. The terrace is only 4 m a.m.s.l., suggesting 

negligible uplift since that time. These ages are 

different from the age estimate of 7114 kyr obtained 

for the same marine sands by Rees-Jones et al. (2000), 

but the discrepancy is thought to be due to the use of an 

inappropriate procedure, i.e. optical dating of feldspar 

inclusions in quartz grains (e.g. Huntley et al. 1993b) by 

the latter authors. Further away (10 km) from the influence 

of faulting, IRSL ages of 9711 kyr and 

965 kyr were calculated for raised beach sands 

(Litchfield & Lian 2004). These ages were not corrected 

for anomalous fading either, so it is difficult to verify 

whether this marine terrace is associated with MIS 5e or 

one of the other MIS 5 interstadials and, hence, the 

implications for estimation of uplift rates. Nonetheless, 

the 117 kyr ages for the beach sand closest to the Akatore 

fault suggest that no significant tectonic activity 

occurred on the Akatore fault since the last interglacial 

125 kyr ago. Similar tectonic stability on the east 

coast of South Island has been observed by Shulmeister 

et al. (1999), who took samples for TL dating from 

nearly the entire length of a 75 m core collected from 

the Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch. The core contains 

a 200 kyr sequence of alternating mud, loess and 

soil lenses. TL ages suggest the mud relates to the last 

three interglacial periods and the soil to the intervening 

stadials. Based on existing sea-level curves for MIS 5, it 

has been shown by this study that the Banks Peninsula 

has been tectonically stable for at least the last 125 kyr. 

Tsunami and storm-surges are relatively common in 

New Zealand. Two different types of tsunami deposits 

have been dated using OSL from polymineral fine 

grains (Nichol et al. 2003; Kennedy et al. 2007). Nichol 

et al. (2003) obtained OSL ages on dune sands underlying 

and overlying a gravel sheet extending beyond 

(14.3 m) the limits of storm surge (0.8 m) on Great 

Barrier Island, located off the west coast of North Island. 

The ages bracket the tsunami to between 0 and 

4.7 kyr, but are unable to provide better resolution. 

Along the north Otago coast, South Island, Kennedy 

et al. (2007) described deposits of large, imbricated 

boulders elevated above modern sea level. They dated 

sand grains found in between the boulders and also two 

units of in situ loess deposits overlying the boulders. 

The sand grains between the boulders and the loess directly 

overlying these boulders date to MIS 5a, providing 

a depositional age for the tsunami, the oldest known 

in New Zealand. 

The Americas 

A large proportion of the studies conducted along the 

North American coastline concern the age of the formation 

of Holocene barrier dunes. These landforms are 

of interest because their stratigraphic records often 

show identifiable marker horizons and erosional 

boundaries that indicate connections between coastal 

processes and barrier behaviour. Dating of such stratigraphic 

features can, for example, allow determination 

of the timing and recurrence intervals of storms (e.g. 

Rink & Forrest 2005; Buynevich et al. 2007). Using 

OSL dating of quartz grains, Rink & Forrest (2005) 

determined the mean recurrence interval of major 

storms along the Canaveral Peninsula in Florida to be 

808 years over the last 4000 years, using the average 

ridge accumulation rate derived from the dating of a 

limited number of dunes as a proxy for storm activity. 

Buynevich et al. (2007) obtained a more direct estimate 

of storm frequency along the coast of Maine during the 

last 1500 years. They used diagnostic geophysical and 

sedimentological signatures of severe erosional events 

preserved in the barrier dune to estimate a storm recurrence 

interval of 100 years over the last 500 years, 

preceded by a calmer period lasting 1000 years. 

Dating of barrier dunes can also lead to the identification 

of regionally extensive periods of increased aeolian 

activity (e.g. Berger et al. 2003; Havholm et al. 

2004; Mallinson et al. 2008). Along the North Carolina 

and Virginia coasts, alternating patterns of dune activity 

and stabilization were observed by Havholm et al.


(2004) using ground penetrating radar (GPR), and the 

periods of dune stability were dated using OSL by Berger 

et al. (2003). They applied a combination of quartz 

OSL and IRSL on feldspars, but found that the IRSL 

ages were too young due to the occurrence of anomalous 

fading; they therefore based their ages for dune 

formation on the OSL results. The resultant chronologies 

and GPR observations led them to identify 

three phases of dune activity, punctuated by two phases 

of dune stability, during the last 1800 years. Havholm 

et al. (2004) suggested that the conditions resulting in 

dune formation and preservation in a mostly humid 

region were likely the result of a combination of climatic 

deterioration, in the form of increased storminess 

and cooler temperatures, and a gradually rising sea level. 

A similar scenario was proposed by Jungner et al. 

(2001), who used OSL dating to investigate the cycles of 

stabilization and reactivation that formed the dune sequence 

observed at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon, during the 

last 7000 years. In other areas of North America, barrier 

dunes have been identified as palaeo-shorelines, so 

that dating them may provide information about the 

response of barrier dunes to changes in sea level (e.g. 

Van Heteren et al. 2000; Lopez & Rink 2007, 2008; 

Mallinson et al. 2008). For a barrier in Massachusetts, 

Van Heteren et al. (2000) used a multiple-aliquot additive 

and regenerative dose IRSL procedure to obtain 

ages for samples collected from the full vertical range 

(8 m) of an aeolian unit above the dune-beach facies 

boundary to determine changes in sea level. After correcting 

for anomalous fading, they obtained ages that 

showed satisfactory agreement with 14 C ages obtained 

from a salt-marsh peat located behind the barrier dune. 

Their chronology suggested that local relative sea level 

rose 8 m during the past 5500 years. Lopez & Rink 

(2007) showed that, due to rising sea levels, emergent 

land has formed on St. Vincent Island, one of the Apalachicola 

barrier islands along the northwest Gulf coast 

of Florida, since 4000 years ago. They obtained sequentially 

younger ages coastward, with differential 

accumulation rates during the late Holocene and in 

different parts of the island. The impact of changing sea 

level has also been detected from barrier deposits dating 

to the Late Pleistocene in North Carolina (e.g. 

Mallinson et al. 2008). They obtained OSL ages related 

to MIS 5a and MIS 3, from which they deduced that the 

relative sea level in this area at these times was at or 

above present sea level. The Holocene palaeo-shoreline 

at 4–3 kyr lay 2–3 km west (i.e. inland) of the current 

shoreline. They suggested that although this may have 

resulted from rapid, minor sea-level oscillations during 

the late Holocene, it is more likely to represent the rapid 

flooding and landward translation of the shoreline. 

Therefore the chronologies obtained from these barrier 

dunes can provide useful insights into climate cycles 

and isostatic movements in middle- and high-latitude 

regions since the last glaciation. Calculations of storm 

event frequencies can also influence coastal management, 

development and protection planning decisions. 

Pleistocene aeolian and marine successions have also 

been dated. Of particular interest are those along the 

South American coastline. Three studies used luminescence 

dating to provide chronologies for aeolian and 

marine successions identified along the Brazilian coast 

(Baretto et al. 2002; Tatumi et al. 2003; Giannini et al. 

2007) with a further two studies along the coasts of 

Ecuador and Peru (Pedoja et al. 2006a, b). The Brazilian 

coast is located along a passive continental margin 

and provides an opportunity to directly assess the extent 

of sea-level change in the absence of tectonic influences, 

whereas the coasts of Ecuador and Peru are 

heavily uplifted due to subduction of the adjacent 

Carnegie Ridge. Baretto et al. (2002) used a combination 

of TL and OSL dating of quartz and IRSL dating 

of feldspar grains to obtain direct estimates of sea-level 

change from two marine terraces along the coast of the 

Rio Grande do Norte State in northeastern Brazil. The 

ages of 220–206 kyr and 117–110 kyr obtained were 

correlated with the sea-level highstands of MIS 7c and 

5e, respectively. The MIS 7c marine terrace ranges in 

altitude between 7.5 and 1.3 m a.m.s.l. and the MIS 5e 

marine terrace between 1 and 20 m a.m.s.l. The combination 

of elevation and age estimates suggests relative 

down-faulting of the MIS 7c deposit and uplift of the 

MIS 5e deposit. This study showed, therefore, that it is 

inappropriate to establish sea-level change from terrace 

elevation alone, even on passive continental margins; 

rather, numerical-age chronology is essential. 

Along the northwestern coast of South America, in 

Ecuador and Peru, coasts have been substantially uplifted. 

Marine terraces reaching elevations of 360 m 

a.m.s.l. were dated by Pedoja et al. (2006a, b) using a 

modified SAR IRSL procedure for feldspars (Lamothe 

& Auclair 1999), and anomalous fading corrections 

were made (following Huntley & Lamothe 2001). 

Relatively imprecise (5–25% error) age estimates were 

obtained and assigned to specific sea-level highstands 

during MIS 9, 7 and 5e. Although association of marine 

terraces to a specific highstand is not fully supported 

by the IRSL ages (e.g. mean ages of some of the samples 

are consistent with MIS 4, but ascribed to MIS 5e), 

relative time-integrated uplift rates of between 0.10 

and 0.50 mm/year were calculated (Pedoja et al. 

2006a, b). 

Asia 

Many parts of Asia, especially the eastern parts, are 

subjected to tectonic forces today and were also tectonically 

very active during much of the late Quaternary. 

Geomorphic features such as marine terraces can be 

dated to determine the rate of uplift (e.g. Tanaka et al. 

1997; Choi et al. 2003a, b, 2006), from which tectonic


stability can be deduced. Alternatively, thick basin-fill 

sediments can be dated to determine subsidence rates, 

as was done for the southwestern coastal plain of 

Taiwan (Chen et al. 2003). A further outcome of tectonic 

(seismic) activity is the generation of tsunamis, 

which deposit large sheets of sand or gravel in the 

onshore run-up zone. Several studies in Asia have 

addressed issues related to tectonics, and some of these 

have reported interesting observations of luminescence 

phenomena that have helped improve the accuracy and 

precision of their age estimates. Such progress is necessary 

to estimate accurate uplift and subsidence rates, as 

well as recurrence intervals of events such as tsunamis. 

The timing of marine terrace formation along the 

southeastern coastline of the Korean Peninsula (Choi 

et al. 2003a, b, 2006) and the west coast of central Japan 

(Tanaka et al. 1997) has been determined using luminescence 

dating methods. In both areas, bleaching experiments 

were performed, using either modern 

analogues (Choi et al. 2003b, 2006) or laboratorycontrolled 

illumination conditions (Tanaka et al. 1997) 

to determine the residual signal for TL dating to confirm 

the well-bleached nature of sediments for optical 

dating. These studies determined that both TL and 

OSL can be employed, but that the light-insensitive TL 

signal should be determined and the ages corrected accordingly. 

Tanaka et al. (1997) demonstrated satisfactory 

agreement of TL and OSL ages with independent 

ages for marine terraces in Japan, but these estimates 

had very large uncertainties. 

Choi et al. (2003b) used the SAR OSL procedure to 

determine ages for marine terraces in Korea. Previous 

OSL dating attempts had revealed problematic behaviour, 

resulting in age inversions and a lack of reproducibility 

of ages in a specific unit. Choi et al. 

(2003b) experienced similar problems when using a 

1601C cutheat for the test doses and comparatively low 

preheat temperatures for the natural and regenerative 

doses. Using linearly modulated (LM) OSL measurements, 

they were able to demonstrate the presence of a 

thermally unstable ‘ultrafast’ component (Jain et al. 

2003, 2008) in some of their samples, and suggested that 

increasing the cutheat and preheat temperatures to at 

least 2201C eliminated this undesirable component. 

The ultrafast component is not present in the natural 

signal, and it sensitizes at a different rate to the other 

components, which results in an inadequate sensitivity 

correction, such that preheat plateaus cannot be obtained 

and laboratory doses cannot be recovered in 

dose recovery experiments. By adapting their measurement 

procedures, Choi et al. (2003b) were able to obtain 

reproducible results for the majority of their 

samples, and identified evidence of two palaeo-shorelines 

at 50–70 kyr and 110–120 kyr for laterally discontinuous 

terraces extending over several tens of 

kilometres. There were, however, some samples in 

which problems persisted, but they were able to 

overcome these by deconvoluting the decay curves and 

estimating the D e from the separated fast-component. 

This approach produced ages in correct stratigraphic 

order and in agreement with ages from other sections 

(Choi et al. 2003a). 

Choi et al. (2003b) did not succeed in obtaining ages 

for any of their poorly sorted sediments. They suggested 

that these may contain clasts of weathered gravel 

that, during in situ decomposition and laboratory 

handling, may liberate unbleached grains into the 

otherwise fully bleached sediments. Using single, multigrain 

aliquots of quartz, would thus result in an overestimation 

of the burial age. Choi et al. (2003b) did not 

attempt to make any single-grain analyses, which may 

have been able to identify the unbleached grains from 

the D e distribution. This may have allowed determination 

of the age from the most fully bleached grains, 

using statistical models such as the minimum age model 

of Galbraith et al. (1999). 

Using some of the same samples, Choi et al. (2006) 

also tried dating with an alternative signal, the 3101C 

isothermal TL signal, to determine their depositional 

ages. Their aim was to extend the age range, since many 

of the samples from these terraces are very close to saturation, 

owing to the relatively high dose rates 

(2–4 Gy/kyr). They demonstrated good agreement of 

ITL ages with OSL ages for some, but not all, of the 

marine terrace sediments and showed that the isothermal 

TL signal does not originate from a single trap 

type; this may have implications for adequate bleaching 

of the signal before deposition. They were unable to 

obtain a zero age for modern analogues, but the residual 

dose of 15 Gy would be negligible for samples 

with D e values of 4300 Gy, thus emphasizing the potential 

for long-range dating. 

Choi et al. (2003a, b, 2006) concluded that considerable 

tectonic activity, much greater than previously believed, 

had occurred in the area during the late 

Pleistocene. This was supported by the occurrence of 

the 50–70 kyr palaeo-shoreline at significantly different 

altitudes (7–25 m a.m.s.l.) across the study area. 

The island of Taiwan, currently a tectonically active 

area, is experiencing the opposite effect to Korea, 

namely significant subsidence, the rate of which can be 

deduced from the analysis of basin-fill sediments, 

mostly of fluvial origin. Chen et al. (2003) obtained 

stratigraphically coherent SAR OSL age estimates 

consistent with 14 C ages for sediments deposited during 

the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The dated sediments 

were extracted from five 250 m long cores collected 

from the coastal plain basin-fill in western Taiwan. The 

results showed spatially variable tectonic activity over a 

relatively small area and deduced, from a comparison 

with global sea level, that the amount and pattern of 

sediment deposition reflects not only changes in sea level 

but also subsidence. Based on changes in rates of 

deposition between different cores, they argued that the


location of the depo-centre was situated southwest of 

the study area. These observations are of relevance to 

engineering risk and coastal management in an area 

that is heavily populated. 

Large seismic events can trigger the formation of 

tsunamis, which leave onshore deposits, such as sheets 

of sand or gravel, in the run-up zone. Many studies 

around the world have attempted to estimate the depositional 

age of such sediments using TL, OSL and 

IRSL dating. Sufficient exposure of the transported sediments 

to sunlight is a basic premise that should be 

met when dating tsunami deposits. The 2004 Boxing 

Day tsunami was associated with the second largest 

earthquake ever recorded, and this provided an opportunity 

to test the applicability of OSL dating to such 

sediments. Murari et al. (2007) used the conventional 

SAR OSL procedure as well as a fast-component SAR 

variant to obtain D e values from 9 samples collected 

from 15 cm below the surface of a 1 m deep sand 

sheet deposited by this tsunami. They obtained ages of 

250 years using conventional SAR OSL and ages of 

o50 years using the separated fast component. This led 

them to suggest that some proportion of the OSL signal 

– the fast component – will be bleached during sediment 

transport by tsunamis, even though the daylight exposure 

time is limited. Furthermore, regardless of the 

energetic nature of a tsunami of this magnitude, they 

thought it likely to have scoured only the top 50 cm of 

deposit in the intertidal region, based on the fact that 

they obtained reproducible results from their OSL 

measurements. These indicated no mixing with 

1.6 kyr sediments (dated by 14 C) found at depths of 

45–88 cm. This study therefore shows that OSL dating 

can be used to date recent tsunami deposits with some 

accuracy using the fast component in quartz, but it 

sheds doubt on ages derived using the hard-to-bleach 

TL signal, which had been used previously in other regions 

of the world. 

There are some areas along the Asian coast that are 

tectonically stable and from which useful information 

can be gleaned in regard to eustatic sea-level change. 

Cores composed of both marine and terrestrial sediments 

were collected from the stable continental margin 

at two locations near Hong Kong. The marine and 

terrestrial sandy sediments were dated using TL (Yim 

et al. 2002) and a combination of different OSL and 

IRSL techniques on quartz and feldspar (Yim et al. 

2008). The age estimates are ambiguous, with Yim et al. 

(2008) reporting differences between different OSL and 

IRSL methods. Some of these problems are related to 

dose saturation and others to anomalous fading, for 

which no corrections were made. Neither study involved 

a detailed assessment of the dose rate estimates, 

although consideration is given to moisture content, 

which may have varied substantially in the past due to 

occasional subaerial exposure during periods of lowered 

sea level and also compaction. Furthermore, Yim 

et al. (2008) measured the parent concentrations of U 

and Th with neutron activation analysis (NAA). This 

approach is apt to result in inaccurate dose-rate estimates 

if significant disequilibria are present in the uranium 

decay chain (Olley et al. 1996). Such a scenario is 

quite likely in this offshore environment, and will be 

significant for the studied samples that have unusually 

high U and Th concentrations (4–5 ppm and 

24–37 ppm, respectively). Sediments collected from 

such environments require assessment of the U-series 

equilibrium status using high-resolution gamma and 

alpha spectrometry, which allow any time-dependent 

changes in the dose rate to be modelled (e.g. Zander 

et al. 2007). 

Middle East 

This review revealed only two luminescence dating studies 

have been conducted along the non-Mediterranean 

coastal margin of the Middle East, excluding the application 

of OSL dating to two ocean cores off the Arabian 

coast (discussed in the section on oceans and seas, 

below). Zander et al. (2007) applied SAR OSL dating 

procedures to samples collected from beachrock, beach 

ridge and sand-flat sediments exposed during archaeological 

excavations at two sites in the United Arab 

Emirates. They determined the dose rates using highresolution 

gamma spectrometry and, for comparison, 

inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. They 

observed significant 234 U disequilibrium in the marinederived 

deposits compared to its daughter 226 Ra, which 

they attribute to the likely uptake of uranium by shell 

hash and other carbonates found within the sediments. 

They modelled geochemically open and closed system 

scenarios to enable calculation of maximum and minimum 

ages for each sample. Satisfactory agreement was 

obtained with 14 C ages when using the open system 

model, assuming the steady (linear) post-mortem uptake 

of U in the shell debris. This dose-rate correction 

method allowed them to reconstruct the Holocene 

coastal evolution of Dubai in the United Arab 

Emirates. They provided chronological evidence for a 

marine highstand at 7.1 kyr, as reported previously by 

Goudie et al. (2000) in the northeast of the UAE and by 

Preusser et al. (2005); the latter workers determined a 

mean age for four beach sands along the southeast 

Arabian Peninsula of 6.2 kyr, in accordance with the 

beginning of the Holocene eustatic high sea-level stand. 

The highstand in Dubai was followed by the development 

and then drowning of a mangrove swamp 

ecosystem, which was followed in turn by sand bar, 

barrier-island formation and filling-in processes that 

resulted in an extension of the coastal plain. A brief 

marine incursion 4.2 kyr ago created an erosion 

platform that was subsequently covered by sand-flat 

sediments and archaeological materials.


Preusser et al. (2005) dated 42 samples from the 

coastal deposits of the Wahiba Sand Sea in Oman, 

using a multiple-aliquot additive-dose IRSL method, to 

derive palaeoenvironmental information for the late 

Pleistocene and Holocene. In addition to the beach 

sands discussed above, they collected samples from 

aeolianites and dune sands. The timing of three pulses 

of dune formation was identified: the transition from 

MIS 3 to 2 (34–24 kyr), the high-latitude late-glacial 

periods (16–13 kyr) and the early Holocene 

(9–8 kyr). Each of these represents an arid period 

during which sand supply increased due to exposure of 

the continental shelf. The aeolian dune formations 

around the coast were shown not to be synchronous 

with those further north and inland. This asynchroneity, 

and the lack of Last Glacial Maximum deposits, 

was interpreted by Preusser et al. (2005) as the result of 

deficient accumulation potential rather than reduced 

aeolian transport. 

Both the Zander et al. (2007) and Preusser et al. 

(2005) studies demonstrate the potential for dating 

coastal deposits in the Middle East to better our understanding 

of Quaternary climates in a region that is 

highly sensitive to changes in the Southwest Asian 

monsoon system. 

Mediterranean 

A number of studies have applied luminescence dating 

procedures to different types of coastal deposits in the 

Mediterranean over the years. Most of these studies 

were conducted along the coasts of Italy and Israel, 

with a limited number in Spain, Portugal and along the 

Mediterranean coast of North Africa. The studies conducted 

in Italy were mostly concerned with the dating 

of uplifted marine shorelines to help reconstruct the 

Pleistocene sea-level evolution of the Mediterranean 

Basin, assess local and regional deformation rates and 

evaluate regional differences in the intensity of tectonic 

changes. Uplifted marine deposits are found along the 

Italian coast at elevations ranging substantially in space 

and time. Balescu et al. (1997) were the first to apply 

luminescence dating to coastal deposits in Italy, along 

the Calabrian coast of southern Italy. They used alkali 

feldspar grains to obtain TL ages for last interglacial, 

shallow marine deposits at two MIS 5e (Tyrrhenian) 

reference sites, Ravagnese and Bovetto, where deposits 

occur at 129 m and 125 m a.m.s.l., respectively. The TL 

ages of 11613 kyr and 11612 kyr obtained after correcting 

for anomalous fading, confirmed their MIS 5e 

association. Average uplift rates of 1 mm/year were 

calculated for these deposits. In contrast, Federici & 

Pappalardo (2006) reported a single OSL age for a last 

interglacial beach deposit at 28 m a.m.s.l. along the Ligurian 

coast, resulting in an order-of-magnitude smaller, 

and very gradual, uplift rate of 0.18 mm/year. 

Along the northwest coast of Sicily, Mauz et al. (1997) 

reported TL ages consistent with MIS 5e at elevations 

of between 15 and 118 m a.m.s.l. Antonioli et al. 

(2006) indicated that this part of Sicily is relatively 

stable, with little evidence of uplift during the Holocene 

and uplift rates of 0.08–0.56 mm/year during the late 

Quaternary. These variable uplift rates along the Italian 

coast determined on the basis of TL ages (and independent 

age control) indicate, therefore, that late 

Quaternary tectonic movements in this region have 

been significantly different over small distances, resulting 

in a very complex tectonic history. 

Two further detailed studies of sedimentary successions 

along the central west (Tyrrhenian) and southern 

(Crotone) Italian coasts provided additional information 

about eustatic sea-level change spanning the period 

between the last interglacial and the end of the last glacial 

(Mauz 1999; Mauz & Hassler 2000). Both studies 

used MAAD TL and IRSL procedures to obtain ages 

for the different sedimentary units. Although the calculated 

ages were relatively imprecise due to anomalous 

fading and substantial measurement uncertainties, both 

studies indicated that the extent of eustatic sea-level 

change was smaller in the Mediterranean than in the 

open oceans, especially during MIS 3, highlighting the 

lack of information on Mediterranean thermohaline 

circulation and sea-water exchange between the Atlantic 

and Mediterranean sea during glacial periods. Improved 

precision in age control, through the use of SAR OSL 

applied to these extensive deposits found along the Italian 

coast, could make a substantial contribution towards 

improving our understanding of sea-level change 

in the Mediterranean. The complex interplay between 

sea-level change, tectonic activity and changing environments 

along the Atlantic coast near Huelva, southwestern 

Spain, has also been documented using OSL 

dating (e.g. Zazo et al. 2005). 

Further east, on the coast of Israel, three to five narrow 

linear ridges running parallel to the strandline form 

the most conspicuous geomorphic features on the 

coastal plain. These ridges consist of a series of aeolianites 

(kurkar), palaeosols (hamra) and beachrock, 

which are believed to indicate changing coastal, continental 

and marine environmental influences. Luminescence 

studies have attempted to detail the 

stratigraphic relations between the kurkar, hamra and 

beachrock, since this coastal sequence is an important 

archive of climate change and environment for this region. 

A large number of IRSL and TL ages have been 

determined for outcrops along the Carmel and Sharon 

coastal plains to estimate the formation times of kurkar 

and hamra (e.g. Engelmann et al. 2001; Frechen et al. 

2001, 2002, 2004; Porat et al. 2004). MAAD IRSL and 

TL ages were calculated for outcrops along both the 

Carmel (Frechen et al. 2004) and Sharon (Engelmann 

et al. 2001; Frechen et al. 2001) coasts, with the former 

representing a much longer temporal sequence since


MIS 6, including evidence of the MIS 5e high sea-level 

in the form of beachrock. The deposits along the Sharon 

coast date to o65 kyr. These TL and IRSL ages are 

imprecise (10–20% relative errors), however, and are 

commonly not in agreement with TL showing significantly 

more scatter than IRSL. The IRSL ages are 

also systematically younger; this may be a result of 

anomalous fading for which no corrections were made, 

although preliminary tests suggested no fading (e.g. 

Frechen et al. 2004). The lack of precision prevents reliable 

calculation of rates of accumulation and separation 

of some units, making correlation with climate cycles 

difficult. 

Along the Sharon coast, Porat et al. (2004) used a 

SAAD IRSL procedure to obtain ages with improved 

precision (5–10% relative errors). They found that all 

units comprising the most western kurkar ridge were 

deposited during the last 65 kyr, which confirmed the 

earlier MAAD IRSL and TL age estimates (e.g. Engelmann 

et al. 2001; Frechen et al. 2002). They also 

found that the accumulation rates of the kurkar and 

hamra were very different: 1–7 m/kyr and 0.1 m/kyr, 

respectively. Both types of deposit have relatively high 

carbonate contents, so the accumulation rate is the decisive 

factor in whether or not a deposit will result in the 

formation of kurkar or hamra. All kurkar units were 

deposited during MIS 4, but slow deposition of hamra 

spanning MIS 3, 2 and 1 prevents any correlation to 

specific climatic events. Frechen et al. (2004) suggested 

that more climate variations are represented in the 

terrestrial deposits of the Carmel coast than in those 

on the Sharon coast. Although neither the kurkar 

nor hamra formative episodes can be related to the 

glacial or interglacial periods of the Northern Hemisphere, 

they do seem to show some agreement with 

climate-related cycles identified in marine and terrestrial 

archives of the eastern Mediterranean (Frechen 

et al. 2004). 

Northwestern Europe 

Luminescence dating studies applied to late Holocene 

sand dunes in northwestern Europe have proliferated in 

recent times. Holocene dune fields are well developed 

along these coasts and constitute ‘soft’ coasts that are 

especially susceptible to the impact of predicted sealevel 

rise and increased storminess as a result of global 

warming. Understanding the Holocene evolution of 

dunes in relation to established patterns of environmental 

change can, therefore, provide valuable information 

for effective management of fragile coastal 

systems, including the protection of many low-lying 

areas in northwestern Europe. 

The time of formation of these coastal dunefields has 

been documented in a number of articles based on 

SAAD IRSL dating of feldspar grains (e.g. Wilson et al. 

2001, 2004; Clarke et al. 2002; Clarke & Rendell 2006) 

or SAR OSL dating of quartz grains (e.g. Clemmensen 

et al. 2001a, b; Sommerville et al. 2003; Clemmensen & 

Murray 2006; Nielsen et al. 2006; Aagaard et al. 2007). 

It can be deduced from these luminescence chronologies 

that dune formation was episodic; periods of 

sand drift and dune formation alternated with periods 

of stabilization and soil formation. Many of these studies 

have suggested that dunefield development was initiated 

by cooler and stormy periods (i.e. increased 

storminess and storm surges), which may be a result of 

the southward displacement of polar water and sea ice 

in the North Atlantic Ocean, creating an increased 

thermal gradient that caused a number of deep cyclones 

to pass over northwestern Europe. This hypothesis is 

based, in part, on the recurrent identification of dune 

formation during the Little Ice Age (AD 1350–1800) in 

different parts of northwestern Europe (e.g. Bailey et al. 

2001; Clemmensen et al. 2001b; Wilson et al. 2001, 

2004; Clarke et al. 2002; Clarke & Rendell 2006). The 

most recent phase of coastal dune-building in northwest 

Europe was also identified from luminescence 

dating, which suggests that it typically ended 100–200 

years ago (e.g. Clarke & Rendell 2006; Clemmensen & 

Murray 2006). 

The effects of global warming and ongoing relative 

sea-level change may also be assessed using luminescence 

dating techniques. Some studies have determined 

past changes in sea level from the construction and 

timing of beach ridges (e.g. Orford et al. 2003; Nielsen 

et al. 2006; Bjrnsen et al. 2007; Roberts & Plater 2007), 

whereas in other studies estuarine (e.g. Madsen et al. 

2005, 2007a), mud-flat (e.g. Madsen et al. 2007b; Mauz 

& Bungenstock 2007) and salt-marsh (e.g. Madsen et al. 

2007a) deposits have been investigated. The latter environments 

may be more sensitive indicators of ongoing 

sea-level change, as well as providing a means by 

which to evaluate sediment stability and budgeting in 

coastal estuarine and lagoonal settings. However, dating 

young sediments derived from such depositional 

environments necessitates careful investigation of the 

bleaching properties of the grains, the effect of changing 

burial depth on dose-rate estimates, and the difficulties 

inherent in determining water content. Madsen 

et al. (2005) presented a detailed luminescence study in 

which all these different aspects are described. Madsen 

et al. (2005, 2007a) also tested the accuracy of their assumptions 

using independent age estimates derived 

from 210 Pb and 137 Cs measurements. They demonstrated 

good agreement of OSL ages with 210 Pb and 

137 Cs ages, from which they inferred that the sediments 

have received sufficient sunlight exposure at deposition. 

But they also reported that the D e values obtained from 

the uppermost layers were very scattered, despite largesize 

aliquots being used to maximize the OSL output. 

Scatter in D e values for such large aliquots suggests either 

partial bleaching or significant mixing as a result of


bioturbation. Neither scenario was explicitly examined 

and thus precludes a demonstration of accuracy and 

precision for the ages obtained for the uppermost levels, 

as reflected in their 17% relative uncertainties. Ballarini 

et al. (2007) demonstrated that partial bleaching 

is prevalent in very young (o10 years) aeolian dune 

sands on Texel Island in The Netherlands, and that 

measurement of individual grains allowed detection of 

partial bleaching, based on analysis of D e distributions. 

Therefore, combining dose-rate modelling with D e distribution 

analysis for small aliquots or single grains can 

further improve the prospects of dating these types of 

deposit. Importantly, these studies (e.g. Madsen et al. 

2005, 2007a, b; Mauz & Bungenstock 2007; Roberts & 

Plater 2007) demonstrate that OSL dating has great 

potential to be applied to ‘difficult’ deposits and, as 

such, make a significant contribution to addressing issues 

of real-time climate change and predictive modelling 

of future impacts. 

Oceans and seas 

About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans 

and seas and much of our understanding of past environments 

and climate cycles hinges on knowledge 

gathered from analysis of continuous sediment records 

obtained from deep-sea cores. Application of luminescence 

dating to this environment has been limited, 

however. In the landmark studies of Wintle & Huntley 

(1979a, b, 1980), TL dating was applied to two ocean 

cores collected from the North Pacific (TT28-14) and 

North Atlantic (RC8-39) in water depths of 5079 m and 

4330 m, respectively. They obtained TL ages ranging 

between 9.3 and 140 kyr using a MAAD, partial-bleach 

TL procedure applied to polymineral fine grains (4–11 m 

m). These TL ages were stratigraphically coherent, but 

the uncertainties were large, due mainly to inadequate 

exposure of sediments to sunlight prior to deposition, 

the moisture content, the presence of anomalous fading, 

and the need to make complicated time-dependent 

dose-rate corrections to allow for the presence of excess 

230 Th and 231 Pa in deep-ocean marine sediments. 

Following the ground-breaking work of Wintle and 

Huntley (1979a), Berger et al. (1984) used known-age 

continental shelf material that did not suffer from 

excess 230 Th and 231 Pa, to develop a more accurate 

method of correcting for the light-insensitive residual 

dose. Problems of this type discouraged further application 

of luminescence dating to such sediments. 

It was more than two decades later, after the SAR 

procedure for measurement of single aliquots and 

grains of quartz had been established, that dating of 

deep-sea sediments was re-visited. In part, this was because 

the most light-sensitive signals from quartz and 

feldspar could now be exploited. Stokes et al. (2003) 

applied SAR OSL to single aliquots of silt-sized quartz 

to test the suitability of the OSL dating technique for 

oceanic sediments, and they used thin source alpha 

spectrometry to examine the U and Th decay series for 

time-dependent changes in the dose rate. They also 

provided updated dose-rate conversion factors for the 

major radionuclides in these decay chains. They dated 

nine samples from two independently dated sediment 

cores extracted from the Arabian Sea, and obtained 

OSL ages ranging between 7 kyr and 117 kyr with relative 

standard errors of 3–6%. With the exception of 

only one estimate, these ages agree well with the independent 

chronologies. Even though the silt-sized 

fraction used for dating in this study was dominated by 

aeolian input, and each aliquot was composed of several 

thousand grains, some aliquots exhibited a relatively 

large spread in D e values. 

Olley et al. (2004a) also dated quartz grains (but of 

60–70 mm diameter) from a core (Fr10/95-GC17) in the 

Indian Ocean, off the northwest Australian coast, in a 

water depth of 1093 m. They obtained ages ranging between 

1.8 kyr and 51 kyr, with typical undertainties of 

10%, that showed good agreement with 14 C ages. The 

OSL ages were obtained from individual grains, which 

allowed investigation of the D e distributions. They 

found that partial bleaching was a problem in two of 

their samples, but were able to calculate accurate ages 

using the minimum age model of Galbraith et al. 

(1999). These results serve as a warning that adequate 

pre-depositional bleaching of all traps giving rise to the 

OSL signal cannot be assumed in the marine environment, 

even in ideal situations such as this, where the 

core site lies beneath the pathway of aeolian dust 

transported from the Australian mainland. 

Two luminescence dating studies have been conducted 

in the Arctic Ocean, where limited chronological, 

palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic 

information exists due to the variable and erratic generation 

and preservation of foraminifera. Application 

of luminescence dating therefore has the potential to 

make a significant contribution to the construction of 

chronologies in this environment. In contrast to Olley 

et al. (2004a), Jakobsson et al. (2003) applied the multigrain 

SAR method to sand-sized (463 mm in diameter) 

quartz from the Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic 

Ocean. They obtained SAR ages of 110 kyr, consistent 

with MIS 5, for eight samples, with a ninth MIS 

5 sample yielding an age of 16511 kyr. Two samples 

collected at half the stratigraphic depth of the MIS 5 

samples gave ages of 115 kyr, which clearly overestimated 

their expected stratigraphic ages. They used 

high-resolution gamma spectrometry to check for unsupported 

230 Th, observing little excess in most samples; 

significant 226 Ra disequilibrium (compared to its 

parent 238 U) was reported for one sample. In a more 

comprehensive study, Berger (2006) determined ages 

for 9 core-top and 37 deeper sediment samples collected 

from 20 different cores, representing 19 different sites


across the Arctic Ocean. Berger (2006) applied a 

MAAD IRSL and TL procedure to silt-sized (4–11 mm) 

grains extracted from these samples. The core-top 

samples were measured to test the TL and IRSL 

bleaching characteristics of the sediments and to assess 

the possible impact of partial bleaching on the ages obtained 

for older samples. Berger (2006) suggested that, 

based on the measurement of these core-top samples, 

bleaching of the traps responsible for both the TL and 

IRSL signals is likely to be highly variable across the 

Arctic Ocean and will depend on whether the sediments 

were deposited during a glacial or an interglacial period; 

he also noted the likelihood of some regional variation 

in the adequacy of sunlight exposure at the time 

of sediment deposition. Some of the core-top samples 

produced satisfactory results using a novel, shortbleach 

IRSL procedure, which may prove useful in future 

studies. Dating of the deeper sediments indicates 

the potential of TL and IRSL to extend beyond the effective 

age-range of 14 C dating, but currently their reliability 

is unknown. Berger (2006) also found that 

time-dependent dose rate corrections were less significant 

in the Arctic Ocean than further south. 

Luminescence dating of deep-sea sediments remains 

difficult and subject to assumptions about adequate 

bleaching of the luminescence signals, as well as possible 

time-dependent changes in the dose rate. As a consequence, 

such studies require significant extra input 

compared to luminescence dating of terrestrial deposits. 

But these studies have demonstrated the feasibility 

of OSL dating of submarine sediments, at least in ‘ideal’ 

environments such as those along the Australian and 

Arabian coasts. 

Potential pitfalls 

One of the most significant aspects of luminescence dating 

is its intrinsically experimental character. Because of 

the variability in the luminescence properties of natural 

quartz and feldspar, and the variety of processes involved 

in sediment transport and deposition, the techniques 

applied to each set of samples require testing, and 

suitable measurement conditions ought to be validated 

each time. In a large proportion of articles, this has been 

achieved to some extent, more so in those that appeared 

after 2000 than before, because of the relative ease of 

doing such tests with the SAR procedures. 

Signal resetting (bleaching) by sunlight 

In most articles, some assessment of the extent of sunlight 

bleaching has been made using either a modern 

analogue (e.g. Boyd et al. 2008) or controlled laboratory 

bleaching experiments. In many cases, however, it 

was uncertain whether the modern analogue was representative 

of all types of sediments and processes involved. 

An assessment of bleaching is especially 

important when the TL signal is utilized and the depositional 

process is something other than aeolian (e.g. 

beach, tsunami, storm and estuarine deposits). In a 

series of actualistic studies, Rink (1998), Rink & Pieper 

(2001) and Richardson (2001) explicitly measured the 

amount of natural ‘residual’ TL (NRTL) in a modern 

sample (i.e. the TL arising from unbleached traps in 

modern sediments). Rink (1998) showed that the 

NRTL in quartz grains collected from the surface of a 

beach exhibited a strong gradient as a function of its 

distance from the shoreline, while Rink & Pieper (2001) 

demonstrated that beach surfaces (i.e. the upper 1 cm of 

deposit) and dunes had significantly lower NRTL values 

than did sediments from the nearshore underwater 

zone (70 cm water depth). This outcome is not surprising, 

as the UV component of sunlight is strongly 

absorbed by sea water. Rink & Pieper (2001) also studied 

the NRTL of quartz grains in a modern storm 

berm, a tidal berm and the structures within them, 

which had been formed as a result of a hurricane along 

the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. High NRTL values were 

observed in all cases. The traps responsible for the lightsensitive 

signals in quartz and feldspar are significantly 

easier to empty than are the TL traps, requiring shorter 

sunlight exposure times. But adequate exposure is not 

necessarily true for all types of sediment, as was demonstrated 

by Richardson (2001) for a modern sample 

collected from an estuary. In this study, light-reading 

measurements indicated a three orders-of-magnitude 

reduction in light penetration in less than 1 m of water: 

this was a worse-case scenario, where the water was 

generally turbid and the sediments were muddy. Nonetheless, 

ages of 2500 years (IRSL and GLSL) and 

11 000 years (TL) for modern sediments were obtained. 

Modern surface sand and intertidal beach sand yielded 

IRSL D e values consistent with a zero age. Although 

these bleaching studies broadly differentiate between 

depositional environments in which sediments are likely 

to be well bleached or only partially bleached, these 

generalizations may not apply to every site; it is prudent, 

therefore, to conduct tests at each study location 

to validate the efficacy of bleaching. 

D e distribution analysis 

A conspicuous scarcity in the literature is the application 

of small-aliquot and single-grain dating combined 

with dose-distribution analysis. Such studies are commonplace 

in applications to fluvial deposits (e.g. Olley 

et al. 2004b) and archaeological sediments (e.g. Jacobs 

et al. 2006, 2008a; David et al. 2007; Jacobs & Roberts 

2007) and ought to be applied routinely to certain types 

of coastal deposit. Only a limited number of studies report 

the use of small aliquots (Zazo et al. 2005) and 

single grains (Jacobs et al. 2003a; Bateman et al. 2004;


Olley et al. 2004a, b; Goodwin et al. 2006; Ballarini 

et al. 2007; Bostock et al. 2007; Carr et al. 2007; Brooke 

et al. 2008a, c) in aeolian, marine and estuarine sediments. 

No single-grain D e distribution data were presented 

or discussed for some of the studies (e.g. 

Goodwin et al. 2006; Bostock et al. 2007; Brooke et al. 

2008c). Bostock et al. (2007), however, mentioned that 

some samples required the minimum age model to estimate 

the burial dose; this suggests that these D e distributions 

probably showed some evidence of partial 

bleaching. Good agreement was obtained between 

the quartz OSL and 14 C results, suggesting that singlegrain 

analysis was advantageous in this estuarine 

environment. 

Zazo et al. (2005) reported results for one sample 

analysed using 4200 small aliquots (each composed of 

o10 grains) and 24 larger aliquots (50 grains). Even 

though the large aliquots are small compared to those 

measured at most laboratories, the difference in results 

between their small and large aliquots is striking. The 

D e values for the small aliquots ranged from 55 to 

240 Gy, compared to 130 to 400 Gy for the larger 

aliquots. Such a range cannot be explained by beta microdosimetry, 

but partial bleaching or post-depositional 

mixing cannot be excluded. In this situation, 

neither small nor large aliquots will necessarily yield the 

correct depositional age, and single grains ought to be 

measured. The calculated ages should, therefore, be 

viewed with caution. 

Olley et al. (2004b) measured single grains from a 

marine sediment sample collected from a 3500-year-old 

storm deposited beach ridge in Queensland, Australia. 

The D e values, when plotted as a radial plot, indicated 

that the sample had been affected significantly by partial 

bleaching, but these authors were able to obtain 

excellent agreement with a 14 C age when the minimum 

age model was applied. They also constructed 96 synthetic 

aliquots, of which 48 contained 100 grains while 

the other 48 contained 10 grains. When they applied the 

minimum age model to these two data sets, they obtained 

ages that were too old by 32% for the 10-grain 

and by 57% for the 100-grain aliquots. This illustrates 

clearly that caution should be exercised when using 

multi-grain aliquots, even small aliquots, for sediments 

that may have been poorly bleached; this may explain 

the anomalous results obtained by Zazo et al. (2005). 

Partial bleaching was also observed, using single grains, 

for two samples from a deep-sea ocean core off the 

coast of northwestern Australia (Olley et al. 2004a). In 

addition to analysing the D e distributions for these two 

samples, they also estimated the D e values associated 

with the fast-dominated signal from LM-OSL measurements 

(e.g. Yoshida et al. 2003); this resulted in a 

similar D e distribution. Applying the minimum age 

model to these two samples resulted in age estimates 

consistent with 14 C ages. Marine sediments have, 

therefore, been shown not to be immune to partial or 

heterogeneous bleaching. Accordingly, caution should 

be taken in general for coastal and marine sediments, 

and especially when dating Holocene samples, where 

the effects of incomplete bleaching at burial will be exacerbated 

by the comparatively small dose absorbed 

after deposition. 

Single-grain analysis was also applied to aeolian deposits 

by Ballarini et al. (2007), who measured single 

grains for two modern samples from Texel Island in 

The Netherlands. One sample was known to be o10 

years old and the other had been deposited 1 year before 

collection. Single-aliquot data suggested that the 

former had been well bleached, whereas the D e for the 

latter sample was significantly overestimated and resulted 

in an age of 7424 years. Using a modified SAR 

approach specifically designed for young samples, Ballarini 

et al. (2007) were able to obtain ages similar to 

those obtained from the single aliquots when a mean D e 

value was used. The single-grain D e distributions of 

these samples, however, provided valuable information 

that clearly indicated the presence of some grains for 

which not even the fast component had been sufficiently 

bleached. The presence of such grains in a multigrain 

aliquot will result in age overestimation, just as it 

will when using the mean of the single-grain D e values. 

Partial bleaching, therefore, can also afflict to a measurable 

extent samples with an aeolian origin, and the 

extent of this bias will be exacerbated in age determination 

for young samples. At present, application of 

the minimum age model to such young samples is not 

straightforward, but use of the mean for such distributions 

is not appropriate either; a revision of the minimum 

age model that does not log transform the D e 

values has, therefore, been developed (R. F. Galbraith, 

pers. comm. 2008). 

In South Africa, Jacobs et al. (2003a) calculated D e 

values for two aeolianite samples at sea level, and for an 

uncemented dune sand deposited inside a coastal cave, 

using large, single aliquots (1000 grains), single grains 

and synthetic aliquots (each of 100 grains). They obtained 

consistent results for all three aeolian units, 

when applying the central age model of Galbraith et al. 

(1999). The single-grain D e distribution, however, was 

wider than expected (‘overdispersed’), but similar in 

spread to laboratory-controlled (dose recovery) measurements 

of quartz grains given a known dose. Based 

on the appearance of the data on a radial plot, it can be 

suggested that such scatter in apparent D e results from 

natural variability in quartz OSL that is not fully accounted 

for in the SAR procedure. Microdosimetry 

variations in the beta dose to individual grains is a 

possibility, but is considered unlikely as similar results 

were obtained from both cemented and uncemented 

samples. Also along the southern Cape coast of South 

Africa, Bateman et al. (2004) and Carr et al. (2007) 

measured single grains for a subset of their samples. 

For one of the older samples, about 5 m below the


surface, Bateman et al. (2004) observed much greater 

dispersion in the single-grain D e values and a significant 

shift of 35% in the mean D e for single grains compared 

to the multi-grain aliquots; unexpectedly, the 

latter were smaller, but no explanation was offered. For 

the sample near the top of the profile (o1 m below the 

surface) a similar D e value was obtained from single 

grains and multiple-grain aliquots, with some high and 

low D e outliers. Being located just below the zone with 

root activity, bioturbation may explain some of these 

outliers. Bateman et al. (2004) did not use the singlegrain 

results to calculate their ages, so a re-assessment 

of the age of at least the lower sample (Shfd02007) is 

warranted. 

Carr et al. (2007) showed single-grain D e distributions 

for four samples from the Wilderness seaward 

dune cordon in South Africa. For two of the samples 

(KT2-6 and KT2-8), the D e distributions, when displayed 

in radial plots, appear to represent a single depositional 

event. But application of the central age 

model to the single-grain and single-aliquot D e values 

does not yield compatible results. The central D e value 

for the single grains from sample KT2-6 is 32% lower 

than that obtained from the single aliquots, whereas for 

sample KT2-8 the central D e value for the single grains 

is 22% higher than the corresponding single-aliquot 

value (i.e. there is no systematic bias). This result is 

perplexing and requires further investigation, as the 

causes of this discrepancy may influence all the singlealiquot 

ages calculated for the dune cordon. Carr et al. 

(2007) also reported two samples (KT2-1 and KT2-10) 

for which the single-grain D e distributions are more 

overdispersed than expected for quartz grains that had 

been well bleached at burial and undisturbed thereafter 

(59% and 37%, respectively). The appearance of both 

radial plots suggests possible postdepositional mixing, 

in which case the application of the finite mixture model 

(Jacobs & Roberts 2007) may be able to resolve some of 

the discrete dose components and, thereby, result in 

more accurate results. Carr et al. (2007) suggested the 

possibility of beta microdosimetry variations as an explanation, 

but the effects would be expected to be similar 

throughout the seemingly homogeneous deposit. 

However, this may not be the case if the D e distributions 

are also affected by spatial variability in the degree 

of diagenetic alteration (e.g. Murray-Wallace et al. 

2001). The effects of beta-dose heterogeneity could be 

calculated explicitly (e.g. Jacobs et al. 2008b), which 

would allow the magnitude of any associated D e dispersion 

to be compared directly. Single-grain measurements 

can also be useful for older samples where significantly 

skewed results are obtained, because some proportion of 

the grains may be fully saturated. It has previously been 

shown that improved resolution can be achieved when 

saturated grains, as well as the ‘Class 3’ type grains 

of Yoshida et al. (2000), are identified and excluded prior 

to age determination (e.g. Jacobs et al. 2008b). 

These studies show that, even in aeolian environments, 

it cannot be safely assumed that all grains received 

the same burial dose. Although sufficient 

exposure to sunlight may not be a significant problem 

in many instances, beta microdosimetry variations and 

postdepositional mixing cannot be excluded and these 

can lead to significantly different D e estimates from 

single grains and single multi-grain aliquots. A narrow 

D e distribution obtained from the measurement of 

small or large aliquots cannot, therefore, be used as a 

guarantee of accuracy. It is recommended that single 

grains should routinely be measured for at least some of 

the samples in each study. Only then can we hope to 

obtain greater accuracy and precision for luminescence 

age estimates to rival those of other methods, such as 

U-series. Such improvement would enable luminescence 

dating to contribute to breakthroughs in answering 

some of the more pressing global issues related to 

future coastal evolution and sea-level change. 

Environmental dose-rate determination 

The lack of accuracy and precision is, in some cases, 

also a result of inappropriate estimates of the environmental 

dose rate. In carbonate environments, disequilibria 

at or near the head of the U-series chain are 

not unusual. Use of neutron activation analysis or inductively 

coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis, 

both of which measure the U and Th parent concentrations, 

can result in substantial under- or overestimates 

of the dose rate. Few studies have made 

detailed dose-rate investigations. But there were a few 

studies that were driven by a specific problem associated 

with a certain type of depositional environment. 

One particular example is deep-ocean sediments for 

which time-dependent corrections need to be made for 

excess 230 Th and 231 Pa (e.g. Wintle & Huntley 1980; 

Stokes et al. 2003). Other potentially problematic environments 

include estuaries, where sediment compaction 

and accompanying changes in the gamma radiation 

field can be problematic (e.g. Madsen et al. 2005), and 

Holocene-age littoral sediments that show significant 

parent excess in the U-series (e.g. Zander et al. 2007). 

Nathan & Mauz (2008) have also demonstrated the extent 

to which dose rates in carbonate-rich sediments, 

such as aeolianites and beachrock, may be influenced by 

the replacement of moisture in pore spaces by secondary 

carbonates. In some cases, the effects were negligible, but 

for others they were more substantial, indicating the 

need to assess the possible impact on a site-by-site basis. 

Many studies use integral counting methods, such as in 

situ gamma spectrometry, thick-source alpha counting 

and beta counting to estimate the dose rates; these 

methods are preferable to those that measure only the 

parent U and Th concentrations, although additional 

analyses are required to correct for any time-dependent 

changes in the dose rate.


Future prospects 

So, how well are we doing with luminescence dating 

when applied to coastal and marine sediments? The 

lack of precision compared to other dating methods 

continues to be a major drawback, but this can be improved 

substantially by making increased use of D e 

distribution analysis and more appropriate dose-rate 

estimations. At the younger end of the datable age 

range, luminescence dating has improved significantly, 

owing to the more widespread application of SAR OSL 

procedures for quartz. The improved accuracy and 

precision of OSL ages for young coastal deposits now 

enable geomorphologists to quantify the tempo at 

which the most recently deposited barrier evolved (e.g. 

Goodwin et al. 2006). This was, until recently, restricted 

to deposits that contained sufficient organic materials 

for 14 C dating and to those sediments for which the 

marine reservoir effect was not detrimental. So, perhaps 

it can be said that the ability of OSL to date young 

coastal deposits has produced a revolution in coastal 

geomorphology. Further back in time, the relatively 

early saturation of the fast component in quartz, and 

the prevalence of anomalous fading in potassium-rich 

feldspar grains, remain the major challenges at the 

maximum limits of luminescence dating. Alternative 

dating procedures developed explicitly to extend the 

age range, such as exploitation of the 3101C TL isothermal 

signal (Choi et al. 2006), the componentspecific 

‘slow’ OSL signal (Singarayer & Bailey 2003; 

Rhodes et al. 2006) and the ‘recuperated’ OSL signal 

(Wang et al. 2006) are currently limited by a lack of 

precision or by the lack of testing on coastal sediments. 

Also, the latter pair of methods access OSL traps that 

are very hard to bleach; this effectively restricts these 

procedures to sediments that have been exposed to 

many hours or days of sunlight prior to deposition. 

There are, therefore, some further avenues to explore in 

luminescence dating of coastal sediments, with the 

main aim being to improve the accuracy and precision 

of age estimates. 

Conclusions 

A large body of readily accessible literature is available 

describing the application of luminescence dating 

methods to many types of coastal and marine deposits 

and addressing a diverse range of local, regional and 

global issues. Thus far, luminescence dating has played 

a valuable role in improving our understanding of local 

and regional issues of landform evolution and sea-level 

change. Although large strides have been taken towards 

studying the recent past to predict future changes in 

climate (e.g. Goodwin et al. 2006; Brooke et al. 2008c), 

it has, to a large extent, not yet achieved the necessary 

levels of accuracy or precision to be generally incorporated 

into modelling studies of global climate 

change and predictions of future trends. Technological 

and methodological advances made over the past few 

years should enable luminescence dating to begin to 

rival more established methods, but this will require the 

execution of much larger-scale and more systematic 

studies, in which the distribution of D e values and 

details of the dose rate are scrutinized on a sampleby-sample 

basis. Such refinements may facilitate luminescence 

ages of the required level of accuracy and 

precision to be obtained in a variety of depositional 

contexts and geographic regions. Prospects also exist to 

extend the maximum limit of the dating technique, at 

least for coastal and marine sediments that have been 

sufficiently bleached at the time of deposition. 

Acknowledgements. – I thank Ann Wintle, Brendan Brooke and 

Jeong-Heon Choi for constructive reviews of the manuscript. 

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Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments

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