Abstract

Crystal lattice defects in quartz have long been exploited for age determination, yet also show potential for sediment provenance studies. Here we introduce a novel method for tracking aeolian dust provenance by utilising the natural accumulation of E1' and peroxy defect centres in quartz. Our approach is based on the previously observed premise that E1' and peroxy centres arise from Frenkel defect pairs, and that their concentration increases with age of the quartz-bearing source rock. We propose that these defect centres can be utilised as a characteristic feature of the source rock and consequently, for fingerprinting sediments derived from it. We successfully apply our new protocol to distinguish fine-grained quartz extracted from loess deposits from two regions in Central Asia which are known to derive from different source material of differing age. Our method offers strong potential for identifying variability in source, both spatially and through time down sedimentary sequences.