OSL dating and tephra analysis of fluvial terrace sediments

Tokuyasu, Kayoko; Tamura, Itoko; Komatsu, Tetsuya  ; Yasue, Kenichi

The uplift rate during the past hundred thousand years is estimated from the elevation and emergence ages of terrace surfaces which are used as geomorphologic standard. OSL dating is effective method to determine the emergence ages. Here we report a case study of quartz OSL dating of fluvial terrace sediments, and its adequacy is considered in the correlation with intercalated marker tephra. All samples were collected from fluvial terrace sediments along Kiso River and Tsukechi River which is a tributary of the Kiso. The investigated fluvial terrace sediments are composed of laminated sand layer and pumice layer which is likely to be reworked. The pumice was identified as On-Pm1 tephra by mineral composition, refractive indices of volcanic glass and phenocryst minerals, and the major element composition of volcanic glass. This indicated that the fluvial terrace sediments were deposited after 100ka. The extracted quartz grains from terrace sediments were measured by conventional SAR protocol. The obtained OSL ages are about 40-50 ka, being underestimated because the OSL decay curves from all samples were dominant by medium component which is unsuitable for OSL dating. We thus attempt to determine the equivalent dose using the isolated fast component OSL signal which is suitable for OSL dating.