ABSTRACT
The importance of reliable independent dating control to place landscapes and events in a secure absolute timescale has become more apparent in recent years. The need for improved dating capabilities has attracted the attention of physicists and chemists who otherwise would not be involved in geomorphological research. Their contributions, coupled with improved instrumental capabilities, have led to significant advances in existing methodologies and to the development of promising new techniques. A number of state-of-the-art summary papers have appeared in the last five years that treat specific Quaternary dating techniques (see, for example, the special issue of Quaternary Science Reviews, 7, nos. 3 and 4, 1988), and the general topic has been treated in recent books (Mahaney 1986, Easterbrook 1988) as well as substantive chapters in several of the Geological Society of America's DNAG volumes.
