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Distinction between the Youngest Toba Tuff and Oldest Toba Tuff from northern Sumatra based on the area density of spontaneous fission tracks in their glass shards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John A. Westgate ,
Nicholas J.G. Pearce ,
Emma Gatti  and
Hema Achyuthan
John A. Westgate*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3B1, Ontario, Canada
Nicholas J.G. Pearce
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Science, Aberystwyth University, Wales SY23 3DB. UK
Emma Gatti
Affiliation:
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91106, USA
Hema Achyuthan
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai, India
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:westgate@es.utoronto.ca (J.A.Westgate).
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Abstract

Determination of the area density of spontaneous fission tracks (ρs) in glass shards of Toba tephra is a reliable way to distinguish between the Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) and the Oldest Toba Tuff (OTT). The ρs values for YTT, uncorrected for partial track fading, range from 70 to 181 tracks/cm2 with a weighted mean of 108 ± 5 tracks/cm2, based on 15 samples. Corrected ρs values for YTT are in the range of 77–140 tracks/cm2 with a weighted mean of 113 ± 8 tracks/cm2, within the range of uncorrected ρs values. No significant difference in ρs exists between YTT samples collected from marine and continental depositional settings. The uncorrected ρs for OTT is 1567 ± 114 tracks/cm2 so that confusion with YTT is unlikely.

The ρs values of the Toba tephra at Bori, Morgaon, and Gandhigram in northwestern India indicate a YTT identity, in agreement with geochemical data on their glass shards, the presence of multiple glass populations, and a glass fission-track age determination. Therefore, the view of others that OTT is present at these sites – and thereby indicates an early Pleistocene age for the associated Acheulean artifacts – is incorrect.

Keywords

Volcanic glass shardsSpontaneous fission tracksPartial track fadingToba tuffsAcheulean artifactsSumatraIndia

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Articles
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Quaternary Research , Volume 82 , Issue 2 , September 2014 , pp. 388 - 393
Copyright
University of Washington

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