La contribution de la luminescence à la datation des hauts niveaux marins du Pléistocène

Past relative sea-level markers are indicative of former volumes of seawater as well as local tectonic and/or glacio-isostatic adjustments. Therefore, modern relative sea-level variations may be linked to realistic glacio-hydrostatic contexts and thus be used to adequately predict regional sea-level changes over the course of this century. Coastal dunes and beach sand represent ideal facies for the application of luminescence dating as residual luminescence amounts therein to a minute proportion of the luminescence acquired following deposition. Pleistocene coastal systems of the last 500,000 years are ubiquitous along most continental margins outside glaciated regions. Our compilation of more than 150 contributions in which are reported more than 500 luminescence ages reveals the dominance of MIS5e records but also of rarer MIS5a sediment sequences, as along the Atlantic border of SE USA. A few reports of MIS3 ages have been published from putative highly geodynamic continental margins. However, some of these ages may well result from undetected methodological issues.