Use of a new procedure to determine paleodose in the OSL dating of quartz:The MARA protocol

In OSL dating, most paleodoses are obtained by the additive dose method fol lowed by extrapolation of a saturating exponential fit, or by the regenerat ion method. We present preliminary results on coarse grains from aeolian qu artz for which a paleodose was determined by comparison of two growth curve s: one built from irradiated natural aliquots and another from regenerated aliquots. A simple and fast protocol to compute the paleodose From these tw o growth curves is described. This protocol is of particular interest in de aling with poorly reproducible quartz and with old samples. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.