Resumen de Luminescence dating of speleothems from Granite Caves
Jorge Sanjurjo Sánchez, Juan Ramón Vidal Romaní, Marcos Vaqueiro Rodríguez, Costas Vázquez, Carlos Arce
Water trickling through the discontinuities of granitic massifs causes slow rock weathering resulting in speleothems within rock fissures. Geochemical studies have shown different mineral compositions although evansite, opal-A and pigotite are the most frequent. They grow by accretion of concentric layers and they are a suitable microenvironment for the settlement of organisms, spores and pollen grains, which could be used as paleoclimatic records if the speleothems were dated. As Opal-A and evansite usually contain quartz- and feldspar-rich detrital grains Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) has been tested for dating, while 14C dating was tested on pigotite due to their organic matter content. Results show ages between 0.5 and 3 ka BP.
