Project description
Advancing sediment tracing with luminescence
For sediment tracing methods to track where sediments originate and how they are transported through landscapes over time, they need to overcome limitations caused by the poorly understood preservation and variability of luminescence signals in a variety of minerals. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Multi-LASERS project will investigate whether mineral luminescence properties can be developed into a robust sediment tracing tool. It will combine experimental irradiation of a wide range of mineral samples with trace element geochemistry to determine how long crystals can retain sediment transport information. Furthermore, it will analyse thermoluminescence spectra to test the reliability of the method for provenance studies. The project will also build new methodological and technical expertise in luminescence spectrometry and geochemistry.
Objective
Sediment tracing, understanding the mobility and origin of sediments, is fundamental for unlocking the geological record, reconstructing how landscapes respond to a range of external perturbations and mapping occurrences of important natural resources. Luminescence, the light emissions of minerals, e.g. quartz, due to exposure to ionising radiation followed by either light or heat, is emerging as a promising new sediment tracing tool. This is because quartz luminescence properties scale with geomorphic variables, e.g. transport distance, as well as chemical composition. However, fundamental research gaps prevent luminescence being applied as a standard sediment tracing tool. First, model/experimental data show that the timescales over which quartz can preserve sediment routing information are limited before these signals are 'shredded', but precise thresholds are poorly quantified, and no research has been conducted to determine what causes this variability. Second, luminescence provenance studies have typically focussed on a narrow emission window of quartz, which has been shown to be sensitive to transport processes, so may be unsuited to detecting source-to-sink provenance linkages.
Multi-LASERS will address these research gaps using an interdisciplinary, experimental research design. The project aims to answer two overarching research questions: 1) How long can a quartz grain retain sediment routing information? And, 2) Is thermoluminescence (TL) emission spectra a reliable sediment provenance tool? Question 1 will be answered by measuring the response of a wide range of quartz samples to high doses of radiation, coupled with trace element geochemistry. Question 2 will be answered by examining the TL characteristics of a suite of rock samples with known provenance associations. Multi-LASERS will equip the fellow with new technical skills in luminescence spectrometry and geochemistry and professional skills like laboratory management.
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark
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