Sediment

Soil formation, loess, limestone concretions such as loess shingles provide information about transport routes, moisture, etc. Sediments are archives with a rich content. Elements such as iron, lithium and calcium, to name but a few, can be analysed. Not only terrestrial sediment deposits are of importance here. River sediments or sediments from drill cores from the ocean floor are also important information carriers of the past and present. In addition to various methods of analysing composition and origin, sediments can be dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). This involves dating the moment of the last bleaching, i.e. the deposition of the sediment.

Sample composition

For luminescence dating, the samples must be removed from the profile in cylinders or plastic cylinders. The samples must not be exposed to light (except the ends of the cylinders), whereby care must be taken to ensure that the cylinders are compactly filled so that there is no mixing of exposed and unexposed sediment. The sediment must also be moist, i.e. it must not be dried or rinsed.

Probengröße Lumineszenz:

Ideally, cylinders of approx. 5 cm diameter and 10 cm length are required for dating sediments using OSL, which should be completely full.