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.