Luminescence dating of loess profiles in Poland

Numerical dating using luminescence methods is widely applicable in geology, geomorphology, paleogeography and in archaeology for establishing ages of sediments and archaeological artefacts. Their popularity and versatility come from the fact that quartz and feldspar are ubiquitous minerals in the natural environment. Both of the luminescence methods, thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), have been widely used for dating loess in the past in Poland. Although OSL has certain advantages over TL dating in sedimentary environments such as loess, this method has been widely applied only in recent years. TL results obtained for Polish loess sections allowed creation of the Polish loess chronology in the 1980s. All luminescence dating results from laboratory intercomparison for loess profiles are presented here.