Testing for sufficient signal resetting during sediment transport using a polymineral multiple-signal luminescence approach

•A novel multiple luminescence signal measurement protocol is tested.•Six luminescence signals bleach at different rates.•Bleaching plateaus are used to quantify poor bleaching in sediments.•Approach provides quick and efficient luminescence profiling of samples.

We present a multiple luminescence signal measurement procedure that simultaneously measures six different luminescence signals from a single polymineral aliquot (i.e. multiple-signal, short MS-SAR approach). The six signals show different bleaching rates in bleaching experiments, ranging from rapid bleaching for the quartz dominated blue stimulated luminescence signal (measured at 125 °C, BSL-125), to the slow-bleaching polymineral thermoluminescence signal. The bleaching rate of the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) measured at room temperature (IR-25) and elevated temperature post-IR IRSL (pIRIR-90, pIRIR-155, pIRIR-225) signals decrease with increasing measurement temperature. Owing to these different bleaching rates, the MS-SAR approach allows inference of the degree of bleaching, and thereby information on the transport history of sediments. We test this approach by applying the MS-SAR to four coastal samples from a well-monitored sand-nourishment site at the Dutch coast. Our results show that the proposed MS-SAR approach can be utilised to construct bleaching plateaus which provide an independent and time-effective measure of the degree of poor bleaching in a sediment sample based on the measurement of only a few large aliquots. We propose that the MS-SAR protocol can be used to profile the age, luminescence properties and degree of bleaching of minimal prepared polymineral. This pre-profiling will allow the selection of suitable samples for full luminescence dating analysis in a target-orientated and time-effective manner.