LUMINESCENCE DATING OF LATE QUATERNARY AEOLIAN DEPOSITS AT DALE LAKE AND CRONESE MOUNTAINS, MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA
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Relict aeolian deposits and landforms that can provide important information on the timing, geographical extent and intensity of periods of aeolian sand accumulation are widespread in the Mojave Desert. California. The Pleistocene part of the record is mostly undated. The stratigraphy and sedimentology of sites near Dale Lake (Dale Lake sand ramp) and the Cronese Mountains (Cat Dune) were studied, and luminescence dating techniques used to try to establish a chronological framework for the deposits. The dating of these sites proved difficult, with major disparities between the results of quartz and feldspar thermoluminescence (TL) dating, particularly where the sediments comprised a mixture of aeolian and colluvial meterial. However, initial results, based on quartz TL and feldspar infra-red stimulated luminescence dating, indicate the existence of two main periods of Late Pleistocene aeolian deposition between >35 to 25 ka and 15 to 10 ka. 1994.