Luminescence dating of Late Pleistocene eruptions in the Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany

Abstract

Robust chronologies of Late Pleistocene and Holocene volcanic eruptions are vital for hazard analysis but accurate and precise dating of these events is often difficult. Here we apply various luminescence techniques to quartz and polymineral extracts from heated crustal xenoliths enclosed in scoria and volcanically heated bedrock in the Quaternary Eifel Volcanic Field (EVF), Germany. Consistent results from red thermoluminescence (RTL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of quartz and from post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence of polymineral material demonstrate complete luminescence signal resetting during lava emplacement and sufficient signal stability. RTL and OSL age underestimation of one sample with independently known age from the lava contact zone could be eliminated by annealing before laboratory regenerative irradiation. The average luminescence age of 33.6 ± 2.4 ka for the Wartgesberg eruption is in good agreement with independent age control, while the average age of 15.5 ± 1.1 ka for the Facher Höhe scoria cone is much younger than previously assumed. This result represents the third youngest known eruption in the EVF. Our new data are in line with the hypothesized climate-controlled triggering of Eifel volcanism and confirm that active volcanism related to asthenosphere upwelling migrates from NW to SE in the EVF

Relation between Central European Climate Change and Eifel Volcanism during the Last 130,000 Years: The ELSA-23-Tephra-Stack

“…The Wartgesberg is the largest scoria cone complex of the WEVF (Figure 4) and was dated previously to 31,000 ± 11,000 BP [13], 33,600 ± 2400 BP [43], and 32,000-25,000 BP [49]. The volcano consists of several amalgamated scoria cones and two large lava flows extending from 2 to 6 km from the complex (Figure 4).…”

“…Exceptionally wellpreserved glasses are known from the lava flows of the Alf creek valley, which were dated to 31,000 ± 11,000 BP [13]. A comparable age of 33,600 ± 2400 BP has been determined for the loess below the Wartgesberg [43]. The Meerfelder Maar has been dated with 14 C to 41,300 uncalibrated BP [44].…”

A new quartz for

“…anomalous fading) of quartz is generally not an issue, it has been reported especially for some heated quartz of volcanic origin (e.g. Bonde et al, 2001;Tsukamoto et al, 2007), and a potential correlation of signal loss with heating temperature has been suggested (Richter et al, 2015a;Schmidt et al, 2017). The DRT of b-dosed aliquots were measured with a delay of 48 days, employing the identical SAR-protocol.…”

μDose: A compact system for environmental radioactivity and dose rate measurement

“…Such pairs are fast successions of counts due to the short lived 216 Po (t 1/2 = 0.145 s) in the 232 Th series and 215 Po (t 1/2 = 1.78 ms) in the 235 U series (Aitken, 1985). Today the TSAC technique is widely used (Cawthra et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2015;Duller et al, 2015;Fu et al, 2017;Jankowski et al, 2016;Kühn et al, 2017;Sabtu et al, 2015;Schmidt et al, 2017) for assessing the annual dose in trapped charge dating techniques. However, there are some significant limitations in the conventional TSAC technique.…”