Daniel Ellerton, Tammy Rittenour, Andrew Roberts, James Shulmeister, Xiang Zhao, Pengxiang Hu, Tetsuro Sato, Hirokuni Oda
This dataset includes chronological data collected from the Fraser Island and Cooloola Sand Mass dunefields between 2015 and 2019. The purpose of the underlying study was to identify major periods of dune building over the Pleistocene time period to determine the mechanisms responsible for their formation.
This was done using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating which can be used to date the time period when a sand dune was last active. Due to the exceptionally old luminescence ages produced here we also sort additional age control by developing a paleomagnetic stratigraphy of the Cooloola Sand Mass. Paleomagnetic analysis was performed on pieces of ferricrete that have formed in buried soils that allowed us to identify the stratigraphic position of the most recent magnetic reversal which occurred at 773 thousand years ago.
The paleomagnetic data includes the demagnetization steps, demagnetization results and the principle component analyses used for interpretation. The OSL data includes site information, equivalent dose results and the chemistry information used for dose rate calculations.
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Citation
Daniel Ellerton, Tammy Rittenour, Andrew Roberts, James Shulmeister, Xiang Zhao, Pengxiang Hu, Tetsuro Sato, Hirokuni Oda (2022) Paleomagnetic and optically stimulated luminescence data from Fraser Island and the Cooloola Sand Mass, Queensland, Australia. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/ellerton-2022-osl-queensland-1
References
Aitken MJ, Alldred JC (1972) The Assessment of error limits in thermoluminescent dating. Archaeometry 14:257 – 267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1972.tb00068.x
Guérin G, Jain M, Thomsen KJ, Murray AS, Mercier N (2015) Modelling dose rate to single grains of quartz in well-sorted sand samples: The dispersion arising from the presence of potassium feldspars and implications for single grain OSL dating. Quaternary Geochronology 27:52 – 65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2014.12.006
Heslop D, Roberts AP (2016) Estimation and propagation of uncertainties associated with paleomagnetic directions. J Geophys Res: Solid Earth 121:2274 – 2289. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JB012544
Heslop D, Roberts AP (2020) Uncertainty propagation in hierarchical paleomagnetic reconstructions. J Geophys Res: Solid Earth 125:e2020JB019488. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB019488
Data description
The data are supplied in one excel spreadsheet file (xlsx) with four individual sheets: PCA results includes principle components used to calculate characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) directions, Demagnetization steps includes temperature steps used for thermal demagnetization, Sample demagnetization data includes demagnetization results for all samples analysed and Luminescence data includes location data, equivalent dose and dose rate measurements.
Paleomagnetic data
Alternating Field (AF) demagnetization was carried out at 23 steps of 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 120, and 140 mT with the remaining natural remnant magnetization (NRM) measured after each step.
Thermal demagnetization was carried out at steps of 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, and 120 °C in Japan. Most samples were largely demagnetized at 120°C, which confirms the importance of goethite in these samples.
In other cases, the NRM remained partially demagnetized, so further demagnetization was carried out as needed at higher temperature steps of 140, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 680 and 700 °C at the Australian National University. For stably magnetized samples, a characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) direction was calculated using principal component analysis following the method of Heslop and Roberts (2016). For sites with multiple stably magnetized samples, site mean palaeomagnetic directions were calculated with errors associated with ChRM directions propagated into the mean directions following the method of Heslop and Roberts (2020).
OSL measurements
OSL measurements conducted using Single-aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) analysis performed on small-aliquot (1-mm diameter, ~10 grains per disk) samples using Risø TL/OSL Model DA-20 readers with blue-green light emitting diodes (LEDs) (470±30 nm) as the stimulation source.
The luminescence signal was measured through 7.5 mm UV filters (U-340) over 40 – 60 seconds (250 channels) at 125 °C with LEDs at 70 – 90% power (~45 mW/cm²) and was calculated by subtracting the average of the last 5 seconds (background signal) from the first 0.7 seconds (4 channels) of the signal decay curve. For samples with 1 Gy, or natural De greater than the highest regenerative dose given.
Errors on equivalent dose (DE) are reported at two sigma standard error and age estimates are reported at one sigma standard error. Reported uncertainties include errors related to instrument calibration, dose rate and equivalent dose calculations and errors were calculated in quadrature using the methods of Aitken and Alldred (1972) and Guérin et al. (2015).
Comments
OSL measurements and analysis were conducted at the Utah State University Luminescence Laboratory. Single-aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) analysis was performed on small aliquots (~10 grains) of 180 – 250 µm quartz sand using a Risø TL/OSL Model DA-20 readers with blue-green light emitting diodes (LEDs) (470±30 nm) as the stimulation source. Dose rate calculations were performed on representative sub-samples using ICP-MS and ICP-AES to determine the concentrations of K, Rb, Th and U in the bulk sediment surrounding the samples.
Paleomagnetic analysis was conducted on pieces of orientated ferricrete collected from outcrop at the Geological Survey of Japan, Tsukuba, Japan, where a Natsuhara-Giken oven with precise temperature control was used for thermal demagnetization with NRM measured on a 2-G Enterprises superconducting rock magnetometer system. Additional analyses were performed at the Australian National University using a 2-G Enterprises superconducting rock magnetometer.