Thermoluminescence (TL) of quartz grains has been used to date a soil horizon at each of four sites in a chronosequence of freely drained podzols at Cooloola and North Stradbroke Island. The chronological order of the TL dates is in agreement with the sequence of inferred ages based on stratigraphic, geomorphic, denudational and pedological evidence, but at least one of the TL dates is of considerably greater age than the field evidence implies. Possible explanations of this anomaly are discussed. Differences in the nature of the quartz grains and the various pre-treatments used in TL dating were also examined by using a combination of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods. The DTA showed no dissimilarity among the quartz samples from the different sites, but the TGA results showed significant weight losses for some samples and pretreatments. The SEM method further showed that weight loss is associated with water-sorbing substances (allophanic materials) present as coatings on grain surfaces and/or in cracks within grains.

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Eight podzols on coastal dunes from the Cooloola chronosequence, and an associated pedon from North Stradbroke Island (Amity), were studied to establish (i) the degree of homogeneity of the parent material between and within profiles, (ii) the extent of heavy mineral weathering, and (iii) whether the parent sediments of each pedon had a common proximate source. The pedons are Quartzipsamments and Troporthods with ages ranging from Holocene to Pleistocene. On the basis of ratios zircon : rutile, zirconium : titanium, and non-magnetic : very magnetic heavy minerals in the fine sand fraction (53–125 µm), we concluded that the parent materials of the Cooloola pedons were mineralogically similar. By using zirconium in the non magnetic heavy mineral fraction as an index for zircon, it is evident that there has been considerable pedogenetic weathering of the heavy mineral fraction. There is a statistically insignificant difference in hafnium concentrations of zircons which implies that parent sediments of the soils at Cooloola and North Stradbroke Island were derived from a common immediate source.