A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF QUATERNARY DATING TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO SEDIMENTARY DEPOSITS IN SOUTHWEST VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

At five sites in western Victoria a total of five Quaternary dating te chniques have been applied to shell beds varying in age from Holocene to beyond the last interglacial. To examine the age concordancy of the methods, 89 analyses were conducted-16 by radiocarbon, 26 by uranium series disequilibrium, 26 by amino acid racemisation, 5 by thermolumin escence and 16 by electron spin resonance, the latter previously repor ted by Goede (1989). Uncertainties associated with diagenetic environm ents of samples precluded reliable numerical age assignments for beds older than Holocene. Instead, relative dating of shell beds was based on a reference site (Goose Lagoon) which was assigned to the last inte rglacial based on its morphostratigraphic setting and concordant resul ts of three of the dating methods (amino acid racemisation, uranium se ries disequilibrium and electron spin resonance). Overall there was co nsiderable agreement between methods although not all were applied to each site. Uranium series dating proved most problematical. Migration of radionuclides between groundwater and shells introduced large error s at one site and led to appreciable uncertainties at others.