Towards reading provenance from ubiquitous quartz by multi-spectroscopic investigations

Quantitative provenance analysis studies are instrumental in understanding the tectonic and climatic processes that are shaping Earth`s landscape. Although the most abundant mineral in the sedimentary system is quartz, almost all studies in provenance analysis investigate accessory minerals. Quartz contains various defects, intrinsic (mainly O related defects) or due to impurities. Some of these defects remain unchanged under ionizing radiation exposure while others are being transformed. Some of these defects are paramagnetic (e.g.  E’, an unpaired electron at an oxygen vacancy site (≡Si·), peroxy intrinsic defect centers (≡Si-O-O⋅), nonbridging oxygen NBOHC, (≡Si–O⋅), Al related paramagnetic defects such as Al-hole, [AlO₄]⁰, titanium impurity defects such as [TiO₄/M⁺]⁰ where M⁺ is a cation, germanium defects ([GeO₄]⁰, [GeO₄/ M⁺] etc.) while others have the ability to emit light upon stimulation and were identified and characterised by techniques such as photoluminescence or cathodoluminescence (nonbridging oxygen, NBOHC, ≡Si–O⋅, oxygen deficiency center, ODC,  ≡Si-Si≡ etc.).  Based on the dynamics of radiation sensitive defects under irradiation, quartz can record the amount of ionizing radiation it has been exposed to since a resetting event. As such, quartz is successfully used for dating materials by thermoluminescence (TL) or optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) as well as by electron spin paramagnetic (EPR). Here we present multi-spectroscopic investigations (TL, OSL, EPR as well as hyperspectral resolved cathodoluminescence based on scanning electron microscopy) on quartz grains extracted from independently dated old to young quartz-bearing continental crustal sources, metamorphosed rocks versus their unmetamorphosed equivalents, as well as intrusive versus volcanic rocks and their derived sediments throughout the world. These investigations aim to prove that point defects in quartz have the capacity to carry genetic information and their modifications can provide evidence for antiquity, metamorphism (or lack thereof) as well as knowledge on transport, or recycling.