LUMINESCENCE DATING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EVOLUTION STUDY IN TERRESTRIAL LAND,DEEP SEA AND COASTAL BELTS: A REVIEW

Due to the complicated geological situation in coastal belts,very limited methods have ever been used for environmental study dealing with these zones,in particular the evidence of age concerning the typical environmental events within the Holocene period.Young ages mean their correlation with human activities,and the limitations of radionuclide dating methods,e.g.,¹⁰Be,radiocarbon and uranium/thorium,are normally used for coastal study.In contrast,luminescence dating method(both thermoluminescence and optical stimulated luminescence)can be successfully used for coastal belt study due to its exclusive feature of exploring age information of inorganic sand-size samples,whilst it is free of contamination resulting from radionuclide completely or partially.This paper discusses several cases and analyse the features of application of luminescence dating methods to studying environmental evolution in terrestrial land,deep sea and coastal belts as well as the future research work in this regard.