Natural sunlight bleaching of the aluminum center in quartz

Abstract The effect of sunlight bleaching on ESR signals from the aluminum center in quartz is reported for two samples of sand-sized quartz, one from a granite and one from a beach sand. The grains were exposed to direct sunlight for periods of time up to 500 h, with bleaching carried out in four different cities in China that are from 50 to 3600 m above sea level. Each sample bleached to the same residual level, ∼ 55 % for the granite and 80% for the beach sand of the initial value after a 200 Gy dose had been given. After 200 h, the bleaching level reached was independent of the height above sea level.