ABSTRACT A cylindrical fragment of stalagmite from Caverna do Diabo, State of São Paulo, Brazil, has been studied and dated by thermoluminescence and electron paramagnetic resonance techniques. The thermoluminescence glow curves of stalagmite samples and subsequently gamma irradiated, have shown rise of three peaks at 135, 180 and 265 °C. From electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of stalagmite was possible to clearly identify three paramagnetic centers in the g = 2.0 region: Centers I, II and III are due to , and , respectively. The additive method was applied to calculate the accumulated dose using thermoluminescence peak at 265 °C and the electron paramagnetic resonance signal at g = 1.9973 of CO- 2 radical. The ages of the different slices of stalagmite were determined from the Dac- values and Dan- value, obtaining an average of 86410 for central slice, 53421 for second slice, 31490 for third slice and 46390 years B.P. for the central region of upper end.

The main objective of this work is to present an analysis and brief discussion of experimental ionic conductivity s data in the binary alkali tellurite system, including on 47 glasses that extend the ionic conductivity range by more than 14 orders of magnitude in a wide compositional range. A 'universal' behavior is obtained, using log sigma or log sigmaT vs. E A/kB T, where E A is the activation enthalpy for conduction, kB is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature. This finding further indicates the importance of a scaling factor F recently proposed, that is correlated to the free volume of glass composition. For a given value of E A/kB T, the difference between large and small values of sigma is only one order of magnitude in 87% of these glass systems. The influence of alkali content and temperature was minor on the pre-exponential terms, considering both expressions log10sigma and log10sigmaT. Indeed, the pre-exponential term sigma0 varies around an average value of 50 omega-1cm-1 considering different compositions in this system. The fact that s lies on these single 'universal' curves for so many ion-conducting binary tellurite glasses means that sigma is governed mainly by E A. The composition dependence of the activation enthalpy is explained in the context of the Anderson-Stuart theory.

An analysis and brief discussion of experimental ionic conductivity sigma and activation energy E A in the binary rubidium and cesium silicate systems is presented, exemplified on 23 and 30 glasses respectively, in a wide composition range (5-45 Rb2O and Cs2O mole%). The Anderson and Stuart model has been considered to describe the variation of activation energy E A with alkali concentration in both alkali-silica systems. In this analysis were considered experimental parameters, like shear modulus G and relative dielectric permittivity epsilon. An "universal" finding is obtained using logsigma× E A/kB T in 51 of 53 glasses considering both alkali systems, where E A is the activation energy for conduction, kB is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature. This strong correlation by more than 13 (Rb-based glasses) and 15 (Cs-based glasses) orders of magnitude means that sigma is governed mainly by E A. An explanation for this behavior links ionic conductivity and microscopic structure.