OSL dating of an inland dune along the lower River Scheldt near Aard (East Flanders, Belgium)

The chronostratigraphic position of aeolian dunes in East Flanders (Belgium) has been under debate for decades. Until now, the only available age information consisted of a limited number of radiocarbon dates, which provided indirect sediment deposition chronologies. This paper reports on the first direct determination, by quartz-based single-aliquot optically stimulated luminescence dating, of the time that dune sands were deposited along the Lower River Scheldt in Belgium. The sediments are dated at 12.0 +/- 0.9 ka (n = 5), which confirms that the time of inland dune formation in East Flanders dates from the Younger Dryas period and should not be constrained to the Holocene.