Investigating K-feldspar Luminescence Thermochronometry for Application in the Mont Blanc Massif

Abstract:

Luminescence dating has the potential to quantify the recent exhumation history of mountain ranges as a low-temperature thermochronometer. During rock exhumation, electrons get trapped through exposure to ionizing radiation whilst elevated temperatures cause thermally stimulated detrapping. The resulting luminescence signals measured in the laboratory can be used to constrain rock thermal histories through modelling of the kinetic parameters of electron trapping and detrapping. Here, we investigate and model laboratory kinetic processes of the luminescence of K-feldspar and assess their extrapolation over geological timescales. Samples were taken from the actively eroding Mont Blanc massif in the European Alps, along a 12 km long tunnel with ambient temperatures of 10-35 °C. In this setting rapid exhumation rates have been found during the last 2 million years (up to ~2 km/Myr), however, we intend to increase the temporal resolution to sub-Quaternary timescales using luminescence thermochronometry. Infra-red stimulated luminescence signals at 50 °C (IR50) and at 225 °C (post-IR IRSL225) of K-feldspar extracted from Mont Blanc tunnel samples were measured and our first results reveal a thermal signature from which rock cooling rates can be derived. Isothermal decay experiments show non-exponential decay, but interestingly, experiments with a range of regenerative doses reveal first-order kinetics. The observed thermal decay pattern is well-described by a model based on a physically plausible distribution of the density of states. Ultimately, we intend to use the IR50 and post-IR IRSL225 signals of K-feldspar as dual thermochronometers to determine the late-Quaternary cooling history of the Mont Blanc massif. Moreover, the luminescence signals may give insights into local thermal field evolution, before the influence of postglacial hydrothermal flow.