The importance of pre-annealing treatment for ESR dating of mollusc shells: A key study for Ismil in Konya closed Basin/Turkey

In this study, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is used to determine the geological ages of fossil mollusc shells systematically collected from two different geological splitting at Ismil Location (37.72769°N, 33.17781°E) in eastern part of Konya. According to the assessment of obtained ESR ages, the importance of pre-annealing treatment emphasize in the case of g=2.0007 dating signal is overlapped with the other signals arisen from short lived radicals that cause the wrong age calculation. To overcome this problem, the samples are pre-annealed at 180°C for 16 minutes and, in this case ESR ages are re-calculated for g=1.9973 dating signal. Dose response curves are obtained using 1.9973 signals after pre-annealing treatments for each samples. ESR ages of samples are obtained in the range of 138 ± 38 ka and 132 ± 30 ka (Upper Pleistocene) according to the Early Uranium Uptake model and the results are in good agreement with the estimated ages from stratigraphic and paleontological correlation by geologists. Thus, it is suggested that especially in the case of 2.0007 dating signal cannot been used due to superimposition case, the signal with 1.9973 g value can be used for dating after pre-annealing treatment. The results reports the first ESR ages on shells collected from Ismil Location and highlight the importance of pre-annealing treatment. This study is supported by TUBITAK 114Y237 research project.