Crushing effects on TL and OSL on quartz: relevance to fault dating

The effect of crushing on the TL and OSL signals in quartz was investigated to examine the feasibility of using OSL and TL for dating of faulted rocks . 275 degreesC TL signals were not reduced by crushing by hand (mortar and pestle), in a pellet die press, or using an automatic mortar and pestle, bu t the sensitivity of the 100 degreesC TL signal to a lest dose decreased in crushed samples. Green light-stimulated OSL signal intensities were not de creased after crushing, but showed strongly increased inter-aliquot variabi lity after crushing. We concluded that OSL and TL in quartz might be useful to characterize the crushing history of quartz in fault rocks, but their u sefulness in dating Fault events was not evident because we did not find ev idence of signal zeroing under the conditions used in this study. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.