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Journal of Desert Research ›› 2023, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 69-85.DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2022.00136

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Quartz OSL and K-feldspar pIRIR dating of typical sediments over the past 20 000 years from the Tengger Desert, northern China

Ying Wang(), Shuangwen Yi(), Zhiwei Xu, Haochen Zhang, Xusheng Li   

  1. School of Geography and Ocean Sciences,Nanjing University,Nanjing 210000,China
  • Received:2022-08-31 Revised:2022-11-10 Online:2023-05-20 Published:2023-05-31
  • Contact: Shuangwen Yi

Abstract:

Sedimentary records of the late Quaternary preserved in the deserts are important archives to reconstruct the paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental change. In recent years, different dating methods have been used to establish chronologies of aeolian and lacustrine sediments in the deserts, especially the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating technology. However, it still has some uncertainties whether the luminescence dating techniques could provide reliable ages for relatively young samples. In this study, several sediments were collected from different sites in the Tengger Desert, and their ages were measured by quartz SAR-OSL and K-feldspar pIRIR150 dating methods. A set of tests, such as the dose recovery, fading and residual tests, were carried out to explore the applicability and reliability of the K-feldspar pIRIR150 dating protocol in this area. The results suggest that the K-feldspar samples were well bleached before deposition. Residual doses of pIRIR signals are between 0.07-0.27 Gy and the dose recovery ratio is basically equal to 1 within the dose range of 60 Gy (equal to about 20,000 years). The corrected K-feldspar pIRIR150 ages are generally overestimated, while the uncorrected pIRIR150 ages are in good agreement with the quartz SAR-OSL ages, indicating the uncertainties of g-value correction. Based on the quartz SAR-OSL and K-feldspar pIRIR150 ages, it is found that the geomorphological evolution at different sites in the study area show strong heterogeneity at local scales, while at glacial-interglacial time scales, their changes are broadly consistent with regional climatic changes. During the Last Glacial Maximum and Deglacial period, the dunes were mostly active and vegetation was degraded, and the areas of lakes and oases were relatively decreased. In contrast, dune activity was restricted and vegetation coverage was increased during the Early and Middle Holocene, and the lakes and oases were relatively expanded. During the past few hundreds of years, different sites in the Tengger Desert have probably undergone multiple phases of dune activation and stabilization, which may be related to not only regional environmental changes but also local disturbances.

Key words: OSL dating, K-feldspar pIRIR150 dating, geomorphological reconstruction, aeolian environmental change, Tengger Desert

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