[Kadereit] Luminescence- and Alpha-Recoil-Track-Dating of Lake Malawi Sediments

German Title: Luminescence- and Alpha-Recoil-Track-Dating of Lake Malawi Sediments

Abbreviation: 112

Current Status: completed


Main Applicant:Dr. Annette Kadereit


Resources Recipient


Other Persons

Prof. Dr. Ulrich A. Glasmacher


Conveyor Begin:
Conveyor End:
Conveyor Duration:
Year: 2002


Description

Lake Malawi is supposed to hold a tropical sedimentary archive of outstanding quality and duration (größer als 2 Ma) storing unique information on the climatic and landscape history of the East-African rift area. However, a necessary requirement for the intended analysis of the paleo-environmental archive within ICDP/KTB-activities will be the establishment of a wellresolved chronology. Therefore the availability of reliable dating techniques, which each produce accurate data and which together cover the total time period in question, will be essential. This is why a pilot study is launched in order to test the applicability of two independent physical dating methods for Lake Malawi sediments. (1) Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques aim to determine the time, when a mineral grain was last exposed to daylight during its last sedimentary cycle of erosion, transport and deposition. (2) The alpha-recoil-track (ART) technique determines the time when a mineral grain was formed and thus possesses a high potential as a tephra-chronological dating tool. The expected mineralogical and sedimentological properties, the small amount of material available and a complicated dose rate situation of the limnic sediments will require the adaptation and further development of the already available dating technologies.