intercalibration of astronomical and radioisotopic time the 40ar 39ar radioisotopic dating technique is one of the most precise and versatile methods available for dating events in earth s history but the accuracy of this method is limited by the accuracy with which the ages of neutron fluence monitors dating standards are known calibrating the ages of standards by conventional means has proved difficult and contentious the emerging astronomically calibrated geomagnetic polarity time scale apts offers a means to calibrate the ages of 40ar 39ar dating standards that is independent of absolute isotopic abundance measurements seven published 40ar 39ar dates for polarity transitions nominally ranging from 0 78 to 3 40 ma are based on the fish canyon sanidine standard and can be compared with apts predictions solving the 40ar 39ar age equation for the age of the fish canyon sanidine that produces coincidence with the apts age for each of these seven reversals yields mutually indistinguishable estimates ranging from 27 78 to 28 09 ma with an inverse variance weighted mean of 27 95 0 18 ma normalized residuals are minimized at an age of 27 92 ma indicating the robustness of the solution

the paleomagnetic record at iodp site u1307 back to 2 2 ma eirik drift off south greenland abstract integrated ocean drilling program iodp expedition 303 to the north atlantic in 2004 recovered a 175 m quaternary sedimentary section at iodp site u1307 located on the northern part of the eirik drift south of greenland the seafloor at site u1307 at 2575 m water depth is situated within the water depth range of the present day main axis of the western boundary under current wbuc but lies on the nw side of the drift crest and is partly shielded from it the uppermost 120 meters of sediment sequence were sampled with u channels along a composite section which combines the two holes drilled at this site an age model was obtained by identification of polarity reversals back to the reunion subchron 2 1 ma and then refined in the 0 1 5 ma interval by correlation of the relative paleointensity rpi record to the piso paleointensity stack the site u1307 relative paleointensity rpi record is compared with the piso and epapis pacific stacks neighboring iodp sites from eirik drift sites u1305 and u1306 and with the ocean drilling program odp site 984 record that extends beyond piso magnetite grain size and concentration proxies are compared to sites u1305 and u1306 records in the context of the past evolution of the wbuc

paleointensity assisted chronostratigraphy of detrital layers on the eirik drift north atlantic since marine isotope stage 11 1 four piston cores collected in 1999 and 2002 from the eirik drift southern labrador sea off se greenland provide paleomagnetic environmental magnetic and oxygen isotope records back to marine isotope stage 11 age models for the cores are based on a combination of planktonic oxygen isotope data relative geomagnetic paleointensity proxies and the identification of geomagnetic excursions laschamp and iceland basin environmental magnetic data delineate two distinct detrital signals interpreted to reflect the behavior of the surrounding ice sheets greenland and laurentide to orbital and millennial scale climate forcing broad decimeter scale intervals of increased magnetic concentration and grain size occur during the early part of interglacial marine isotopic stages mis 1 5 7 9 and 11 discrete centimeter scale layers recognized by magnetic concentration and grain size sensitive parameters gamma ray attenuation gra bulk density and carbonate content are observed in glacial and interglacial stages as well as during terminations on the basis of glacial reconstructions on greenland during the last termination the broad decimeter scale coarser grained intervals can be attributed to detrital influx associated with the retreat of the terrestrial based greenland ice sheet in the early holocene a similar magnetic signal observed within interglacial mis 5 7 9 and 11 indicates similar greenland ice sheet behavior during these time intervals two types of centimeter scale detrital layers are also recognized back to mis 11 detrital carbonate dc layers reflect predominately ice rafted debris ird deposition while the low detrital carbonate ldc layers reflect mass movement as evidenced by sharp basal contacts graded bedding and traction structures likely from the greenland slope some detrital layers on eirik drift particularly the dc layers can be tentatively correlated to detrital layers observed in the central north atlantic and to those documented on the southern side of the labrador sea at orphan knoll

reconciling astrochronological and 40ar 39ar ages for the matuyama brunhes boundary and late matuyama chron when five matuyama brunhes m b boundary records from the north atlantic are placed on isotope age models produced by correlation of the 18o record directly or indirectly to an ice volume model the m b boundary lies consistently at the young end of marine isotope stage 19 with a mean age for the midpoint of the reversal of 773 1 ka standard deviation 0 4 kyr 7 kyr younger than the presently accepted astrochronological age for this polarity reversal 780 781 ka two recently proposed revisions of the age of the 40ar 39ar fish canyon sanidine fcs standard to 28 201 0 046 ma and 28 305 0 036 ma would adjust 40ar 39ar ages applicable to the m b boundary and other reversals and excursions back to 1 2 ma to ages older than the new astrochronological ages by 8 24 kyr the variables used to construct the ice volume models cannot account for the discrepancy the fcs standard age that best fits the astrochronological ages is 27 93 ma which is within the uncertainty associated with the commonly used value of 28 02 0 16 ma but younger than the recently proposed fcs ages the edc2 and edc3 age models in the dome c antarctic ice core yield ages of 771 7 ka and 766 4 ka respectively for the 10be flux peak that denotes the paleointensity minimum at the reversal boundary implying that the edc2 rather than edc3 age model is consistent with the observations from marine sediments at least close to the m b boundary

paleomagnetism and 40ar 39ar chronology of lavas from meseta del lago buenos aires patagonia 1 as part of a larger project investigating paleosecular variation in south america 36 paleomagnetic and geochronology sites were sampled on meseta del lago buenos aires 47 s 289 e 200 km east of the active plate boundary in southern patagonia basaltic lavas sampled range from late miocene to late pleistocene yet most of the individual lavas are younger than 3 3 ma thirty eight isochron ages determined via 40ar 39ar incremental heating experiments frame a detailed stratigraphy the isochron ages range from 66 9 4 1 ka for scoria cones and a youthful lava flow in the rio pinturas valley to 10 12 1 35 ma for thick plateau forming lavas exposed along the se edge of the meseta the last 3 3 myr is characterized by seven episodes of volcanism at ca 3 2 3 0 ma 2 4 ma 1 7 ma 1 35 ma 1 0 ma 750 ka 430 330 ka and 110 ka the bulk of lavas forming the surface of the meseta erupted in the last 1 7 my all sites have stable magnetization and after step demagnetization using either thermal or alternating field techniques yield characteristic directions held by magnetite and or titanomagnetite ten sites have distinct transitional directions defined by pole latitudes 55 and associated ages indicate possible connections to known reversals within the matuyama chron including the onset of the jaramillo subchron 1 016 0 01 ma the cobb mountain subchron 1 25 0 03 ma the ontong java 1 event 1 37 0 03 ma and the termination of the olduvai subchron 1 72 0 02 ma remaining sites are divided into normal 14 sites and reversed polarity 12 sites at 95 confidence mean normal and reversed directions overlap the mean direction for 26 sites is i 63 0 d 3 4 95 5 4 which is indistinguishable from the expected geocentric axial dipole paleosecular variation measured by the dispersion of virtual geomagnetic poles about the rotation axis is higher than expected at 20 0 model g using data for the past 5 myr predicts a dispersion of 17 this discrepancy may be due to true dispersion of the field in southern south america or it may be an artifact of inadequate sampling

a refined astronomically calibrated 40ar 39ar age for fish canyon sanidine abstract intercalibration between the astronomical and radio isotopic dating methods provides a means to improving accuracy and reducing uncertainty of an integrated multi chronometer geologic timescale here we report a high precision 40 ar 39 ar age for the fish canyon sanidine fcs neutron fluence monitor by multi collector noble gas mass spectrometry through cross calibration with a1 tephra sanidines a1ts of the direct astronomically tuned faneromeni section crete the astronomically intercalibrated 40 ar 39 ar age of fcs of 28 172 0 028 ma 2 external errors is within the uncertainty of but more precise 0 10 than the previous 40 ar 39 ar age determined by intercalibration with astronomically tuned tephras from the melilla basin morocco using this proposed age for fcs combined with measurements using the a1ts as the neutron fluence monitor a weighted mean bishop tuff 40 ar 39 ar sanidine age of 0 7674 0 0022 ma 2 external errors is indistinguishable from the id tims u pb zircon age 0 7671 0 0019 ma the consistency between the astronomically calibrated 40 ar 39 ar sanidine age and u pb zircon age for this quaternary unit suggests that agreement between these two radio isotopic dating techniques is now achievable at better than 0 3 2 in the youngest part of geologic time

constraints on the pleistocene chronology of sediments from the lomonosov ridge 1 despite its importance in the global climate system age calibrated marine geologic records reflecting the evolution of glacial cycles through the pleistocene are largely absent from the central arctic ocean this is especially true for sediments older than 200 ka three sites cored during the integrated ocean drilling program s expedition 302 the arctic coring expedition acex provide a 27 m continuous sedimentary section from the lomonosov ridge in the central arctic ocean two key biostratigraphic datums and constraints from the magnetic inclination data are used to anchor the chronology of these sediments back to the base of the cobb mountain subchron 1215 ka beyond 1215 ka two best fitting geomagnetic models are used to investigate the nature of cyclostratigraphic change within this chronology we show that bulk and mineral magnetic properties of the sediments vary on predicted milankovitch frequencies these cyclic variations record glacial and interglacial modes of sediment deposition on the lomonosov ridge as evident in studies of ice rafted debris and stable isotopic and faunal assemblages for the last two glacial cycles and were used to tune the age model potential errors which largely arise from uncertainties in the nature of downhole paleomagnetic variability and the choice of a tuning target are handled by defining an error envelope that is based on the best fitting cyclostratigraphic and geomagnetic solutions

geomagnetic excursions and paleointensities in the matuyama chron at ocean drilling program sites 983 and 984 iceland basin 1 we report natural remanent magnetization nrm directions and geomagnetic paleointensity proxies for part of the matuyama chron 0 9 2 2 ma interval from two sites located on sediment drifts in the iceland basin at ocean drilling program sites 983 and 984 mean sedimentation rates in the late matuyama chron are 15 9 and 11 5 cm kyr 1 respectively for the older part of the record 1 2 ma oxygen isotope data are too sparse to provide the sole basis for age model construction the resemblance of the volume susceptibility record and a reference 18o record led us to match the two records to derive the age models this match based on site 983 984 susceptibility is consistent with available site 983 984 benthic 18o data paleointensity proxies were derived from the slope of the nrm versus anhysteretic remanent magnetization plot for alternating field demagnetization in the 30 60 mt peak field range paleointensity lows correspond to polarity reversals at the limits of the jaramillo olduvai cobb mountain and reunion subchrons and to seven excursions in nrm component directions magnetic excursions defined here by virtual geomagnetic polar latitudes crossing the virtual geomagnetic equator are observed at 932 1048 1115 1190 1215 cobb mountain subchron 1255 1472 1480 1567 1575 gilsa subchron and 1977 ka the results indicate that geomagnetic directional excursions associated with paleointensity minima are a characteristic of the matuyama chron and probably of polarity chrons in general

normalised natural remanent magnetisation intensity during the last 240 000 years in piston cores from the central north atlantic ocean geomagnetic field intensity or environmental signal we have examined in detail the stratigraphic variations in magnetic parameters of four cores from the north atlantic ocean in areas where the depositional environment has varied with climatic changes our objective is to assess whether normalisation of the natural remanent magnetisation nrm intensity can cancel the effect of climatically induced variations in magnetic mineral content and grain size and whether a reliable record of relative changes in geomagnetic field intensity can be obtained after selecting the core sections which meet published criteria for paleointensity normalisation we have attempted to obtain a record of the geomagnetic field intensity variations over the past 240 kyear using both arm and irm as normalising factors for the nrm the two methods yield overall similar results except for the interval 20 30 kyear where irm normalisation yields a record more consistent with previous sedimentary and volcanic results than does the more frequently employed arm normalisation the final intensity record docmments a picture of the dipole field moment which presents large similarities with profiles obtained from sediments deposited in different environmental conditions in various regions around the world we observe a major low at about 42 kyear which could correspond to the laschamp event a broad low in the interval 90 130 kyear possibly connected to the blake event and another low at about 190 kyear which could reflect the biwa i event the processes of acquisition of depositional and postdepositional remanent magnetisation and the physics of the normalising methods are still insufficiently understood however these results obtained from a region characterised by complex environmental dynamics confirm the potential of sedimentary deep sea cores for relative paleointensity determinations

geomagnetic moment instability between 0 6 and 1 3 ma from cosmonuclide evidence 1 the reliability of paleomagnetic records as proxies of the geomagnetic field intensity is still a matter of controversy since volcanic materials hardly provide continuous records and marine sediments are suspected to carry a remanence biased by post depositional realignments and or by overprints such long standing debate emphasizes the need for the development of methods independent from paleomagnetism to decipher geomagnetic intensity variations high resolution measurements of authigenic 10be 9be along with a detailed sedimentary record of directional and relative paleointensity variations evidence over the 0 6 1 3 ma time interval frequent and recurrent excursions or short events in the late matuyama and the early brunhes epochs among which two brunhes matuyama reversal precursors and an intra jaramillo excursion the results of this study confirm the idea of a highly unstable geomagnetic field as suggested by paleomagnetic evidences

timing of quaternary geomagnetic reversals and excursions in volcanic and sedimentary archives abstract we review the ages of quaternary magnetic polarity reversals and magnetic excursions improvements in radioisotopic 40ar 39ar dating of reversals and excursions reflect the use of multi collector mass spectrometers along with ultra low backgrounds laser based incremental heating methods and adoption of 28 201 ma for the fish canyon sanidine fcs standard age kuiper et al 2008 these improvements have brought 40ar 39ar ages of reversals and excursions into close correspondence with astrochronological ages based on the correlation of 18o data to lr04 lisiecki and raymo 2005 and in a few cases correlation to ice core chronologies ages of two polarity reversals the matuyama brunhes boundary and base olduvai are at odds with ages given in popular geomagnetic polarity timescales sedimentary records of the laschamp and iceland basin excursion are numerous and widespread and attest to global manifestation and global synchronicity of these excursions records of other quaternary excursions are less numerous the blake excursion 115 ka has been recorded in north atlantic sediments chinese loess indian ocean volcanics and spanish speleothems the santa rosa excursion 932 ka has been recorded in north atlantic and phillipine basin sediments as well as in volcanic rocks from new mexico and galapagos the punaruu excursion 1115 ka has been observed in sediments from the north atlantic and california margin as well as in volcanic rocks on tahiti uniformity of individual excursion ages using astrochronological 40ar 39ar and u th methods argues for synchronous global manifestation of excursions strengthening the usefulness of magnetic excursions and reversals in quaternary stratigraphy

rapid magma evolution constrained by zircon petrochronology and 40ar 39ar sanidine ages for the huckleberry ridge tuff yellowstone usa understanding the time scales of magmatic differentiation storage and eruption of large volume silicic magmas is a primary goal of igneous petrology within the huckleberry ridge tuff hrt idaho usa representing the earliest and largest caldera forming eruption associated with yellowstone volcanic activity zircon morphological zoning patterns coupled to strongly correlated changes in ti in zircon thermometry and trace element indicators of progressive differentiation provide a proxy record for the evolution of the hrt member b magma body tandem in situ and isotope dilution u pb dating of single zircon crystals demonstrates an absence of pre pleistocene xenocrysts but reveals the presence of antecrysts recycled from pre caldera rhyolites in the hrt magma the petrochronologic interpretation of autocrystic zircon thermal chemical and temporal characteristics suggests that hrt member b differentiated over 10 k y prior to eruption at 2 0794 0 0046 ma as defined by new astronomically calibrated single crystal total fusion 40 ar 39 ar sanidine analyses this refined eruption age demonstrates that the transitional polarity preserved by hrt member b does not record the reunion subchron but rather a separate younger geomagnetic event our novel approach places the thermal and chemical regime of silicic magmas within a temporal context and demonstrates the rapid evolution of a large volume of silicic magma

geomagnetic dipole moment and 10be production rate intercalibration from authigenic 10be 9be for the last 1 3 ma 1 a synthesis of authigenic 10be 9be ratio records constructed from sedimentary sequences deposited over the last 300 ka in the north east atlantic and over the 500 1300 ka bp interval in the west equatorial pacific ocean is compared with proxies of the geomagnetic moment variations over the same time intervals these proxies consist in 1 relative paleointensity records obtained from the same sediments 2 a seafloor magnetization record derived from magnetic anomalies and 3 an absolute virtual dipole moment vdm record constructed from an updated database of absolute paleointensities the authigenic 10be 9be ratio records document the occurrence of the paleomagnetic events excursions and reversals reported for these time intervals by paleomagnetic studies reconstructions of 10be 9be derived magnetic moment records based on theoretical and empirical relationships between 10be 9be ratio and absolute vdm allow establishing 10be derived vdm records that exhibit the same overall structures as the geomagnetic proxy records

ar ar ages from transitionally magnetized lavas on la palma canary islands and the geomagnetic instability timescale 1 a detailed study of 43 lava flows comprising two stratigraphic sequences exposed along the north and south walls of barranco de los tilos on the island of la palma canary islands reveals a complex temporally segmented record of geodynamo behavior that contains no less than three distinct geomagnetic events the matuyama brunhes m b reversal is recorded in five transitionally magnetized lava flows from the north tn section the isochrons obtained from three of the lower four m b lavas are defined by 14 incremental heating experiments that together with a previous age determination yielded a weighted mean of 798 4 6 2 ka all uncertainties 2s in addition a 780 3 10 3 ka isochron was determined for the overlying transitionally magnetized flow indicating that it was erupted during a distinctly younger portion of the transition near the base of the south ts section one finds a sequence of weakly magnetized flows associated with virtual geomagnetic pole vgp positions in the southwest indian ocean between latitudes 56 s and 65 s suggesting instability of the geomagnetic field beyond that of typical secular variation 40 ar 39 ar isochrons from three of these flows defined by 11 separate incremental heating experiments gave a weighted mean of 822 2 8 7 ka this anomalous field behavior recorded 24 11 kyr prior to the m b reversal may coincide with an event featured in several marine sediment records directly above two normal polarity flows 40 ar 39 ar isochrons of 751 9 18 1 ka and 675 0 15 7 ka are nine transitionally magnetized lavas having magnetization directions associated with low to midlatitude vgps spanning 23 60 n these flows are then capped by a single flow possessing normal polarity based on 12 incremental heating experiments 40 ar 39 ar isochrons of five of these nine lavas along with the uppermost flow gave a weighted mean age of 580 2 7 8 ka for this period of transitional to normal field behavior from these same transitional lavas quidelleur et al 1999 reported three unspiked k ar ages with a weighted mean of 602 24 ka and proposed a new event called the la palma excursion however the 40 ar 39 ar age presented here is three times more precise than the k ar age and is indistinguishable at the 95 confidence level from the 40 ar 39 ar age of a lava from the snake river plain idaho that originally defined the big lost event transitional field behavior of similar age observed in astronomically dated marine cores further establishes that the big lost event recorded at la palma was indeed global in extent rigorous temporal and geomagnetic constraints for several additional periods of geomagnetic field instability during the last several million years will comprise a geomagnetic instability timescale that can be factored confidently into models of the dynamo process index terms 1560 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism time variations secular and long term 1520 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism magnetostratigraphy 1035 geochemistry geochronology 1513 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism geomagnetic excursions keywords argonargon dating lavas excursion paleomagnetism reversal

crustal structure of the lofoten vesteralen continental margin off norway abstract by compiling wide angle seismic velocity profiles along the 400 km long lofoten vesteralen continental margin off norway and integrating them with an extensive seismic reflection data set and crustal scale two dimensional gravity modelling we outline the crustal margin structure the structure is illustrated by across margin regional transects and by contour maps of depth to moho thickness of the crystalline crust and thickness of the 7 km s lower crustal body the data reveal a normal thickness oceanic crust seaward of anomaly 23 and an increase in thickness towards the continent ocean boundary associated with breakup magmatism the southern boundary of the lofoten vesteralen margin the bivrost fracture zone and its landward prolongation appears as a major across margin magmatic and structural crustal feature that governed the evolution of the margin in particular a steeply dipping and relatively narrow 10 40 km wide moho gradient zone exists within a continent ocean transition which decreases in width northward along the lofoten vesteralen margin to the south the zone continues along the voring margin however it is offset 70 80 km to the northwest along the bivrost fracture zone lineament here the moho gradient zone corresponds to a distinct 25 km wide zone of rapid landward increase in crustal thickness that defines the transition between the lofoten platform and the voring basin the continental crust on the lofoten vesteralen margin reaches a thickness of 26 km and appears to have experienced only moderate extension contrasting with the greatly extended crust in the voring basin farther south there are also distinct differences between the lofoten and vesteralen margin segments as revealed by changes in structural style and crustal thickness as well as in the extent of elongate potential field anomalies these changes may be related to transfer zones gravity modelling shows that the prominent belt of shelf edge gravity anomalies results from a shallow basement structural relief while the elongate lofoten islands belt requires increased lower crustal densities along the entire area of crustal thinning beneath the islands furthermore gravity modelling offers a robust diagnostic tool for the existence of the lower crustal body from modelling results and previous studies on and off shore mid norway we postulate that the development of a core complex in the middle to lower crust in the lofoten islands region which has been exhumed along detachments during large scale extension brought high grade lower crustal rocks possibly including accreted decompressional melts to shallower levels

padm2m a penalized maximum likelihood model of the 0 2 ma palaeomagnetic axial dipole moment summary we present a new time varying model for palaeomagnetic axial dipole moment padm for the past 2 myr and compare it with earlier virtual axial dipole moment vadm reconstructions which have been based on stacking and averaging scaled relative palaeointensity records the padm is derived from both absolute and relative palaeointensity data and constructed using a new penalized maximum likelihood pml approach to recover a cubic b spline representation of axial dipole field variations on million year timescales the pml method is explicitly intended to reduce bias in estimating the true axial dipole moment that arises in average vadm reconstructions we apply the pml method to a set of 96 032 published data 1800 palaeointensities from igneous rocks 3300 archaeointensities and 86 relative palaeointensity time series of variable lengths and resolutions two models are discussed padm2mp is a trial model based on a subset of the nine longest available sedimentary records padm2m uses a comprehensive data set 76 records 81 446 data 10 records were eliminated and is our preferred model padm2m has a lower mean than existing vadm reconstructions but shows similarities in long period variability some differences in timing amplitude and resolution of certain features can be attributed to variations in age assignments others result from our more comprehensive data set and a reduction in bias attributable to pml modelling padm2m has an average axial dipole moment over 0 2 ma of 5 3 1022 am2 with a standard deviation of 1 5 1022 am2 the brunhes chron average 6 2 1022 am2 is higher than for earlier epochs of matuyama 4 8 1022 am2 as seen in some previous studies the power spectrum for our model agrees with previous estimates of the global palaeomagnetic power spectrum for frequencies up to about 102 myr 1 we see no distinctive evidence in the power spectrum for orbital forcing of geodynamo behaviour

early middle pleistocene transitions linking terrestrial and marine realms abstract marked by a progressive increase in the amplitude of climate oscillations an evolving waveform and a shift towards a quasi 100 ky frequency the early middle pleistocene transition empt previously known as the mid pleistocene transition or mid pleistocene revolution 1 4 0 4 ma represents a fundamental transformation in the earth s climate state the empt began with a substantial change in climate dynamics and ended with the mid brunhes event signaling the establishment of a new steady state the reasons for the empt while uncertain appear to involve a non linear response of the earth climate system the physical and biotic responses to this transition amplified by the growth of northern hemisphere ice sheets have been profound two important chronostratigraphic markers characterize the empt the jaramillo subchron 1 070 0 988 ma and the matuyama brunhes chron boundary 773 ka the latter has been chosen as the primary guide for the lower middle pleistocene subseries boundary as it lies at the approximate midpoint of the empt and aids in global recognition both in marine and terrestrial deposits the jaramillo subchron has received less attention but the late early pleistocene is important in europe because it saw the progressive transition from the villafranchian to galerian mammal faunas and expansion of hominins into western and northern europe the jaramillo subchron is represented by marine isotope stages mis 31 to 28 with mis 30 already showing the asymmetrical sawtooth pattern characteristic of the middle pleistocene indeed while variation in the 40 ky band obliquity remains strong throughout the empt low frequency variability begins at around 1250 1200 ky which coincides with a progressive increase in global ice volume against a backdrop of increasingly severe glacial cycles notably during mis 36 34 24 22 the so called 0 9 ma event 16 and 12 pronounced phases of warming are also documented globally including the super interglacial mis 31 the early phase of the empt is characterized by important glaciations beginning with mis 36 and continuing to mis 24 22 a major intensification of the east asian monsoon system intensification of loess deposition in northern europe development of open landscapes in western siberia increased fluvial incision higher amplitude sea level change and spread of large mammals across northern eurasia and a strong reduction in the north atlantic thermohaline circulation in europe the loss of thermophilous plant taxa during the empt and indeed throughout the quaternary is a reminder of the progressive cooling that took place here and elsewhere

a geomagnetic paleointensity stack between 0 8 and 3 0 ma from equatorial pacific sediment cores 1 we have conducted a paleomagnetic study of six sediment cores taken from the equatorial pacific three from the west caroline basin and three from the manihiki plateau in order to make a relative paleointensity stack during the matuyama and late gauss chrons the age of the bottom of the cores ranges from 1 2 to 3 0 ma the sediments show little downcore changes in the proxies of magnetic grain size and mineralogy and are hence suitable for estimating relative paleointensity the age of the cores is controlled by correlating variations in magnetic concentration magnetic susceptibility and or anhysteretic remanent magnetization arm to target oxygen isotope 18o curves all cores from the manihiki plateau show an upward decrease of the natural remanent magnetization nrm intensity normalized by arm and isothermal remanent magnetization irm with a decrease in sedimentation rate such a trend was removed before being converted to relative paleointensity this observation implies that a sedimentation rate change can affect relative paleointensity estimation relative paleointensity records from the six cores coincide well with each other within uncertainty of age we constructed a stacked curve between 0 8 and 3 0 ma the equatorial pacific paleointensity stack epapis 3ma after adjusting age the number of cores stacked is three to four throughout the record quasiperiodic paleointensity lows occur in the epapis 3ma and corresponding paleointensity lows can be found in previously published records with some shifts in age at least parts of the paleointensity minima seem to be accompanied by geomagnetic excursions the asymmetric sawtooth pattern of paleointensity variations is not observed at the matuyama gauss boundary and thereafter in our record a spectral analysis shows that 100 kyr orbital eccentricity frequency may exist in paleointensity variations during the matuyama and late gauss chrons

evidence for geomagnetic excursions recorded in brunhes and matuyama chron lavas from the trans mexican volcanic belt 1 this study presents paleomagnetic data from 59 independent lava flows from the trans mexican volcanic belt tmvb with ages from 6 4 ma to recent 52 being younger than 1 ma and 11 new 40ar 39ar age determinations most remanence carriers are ti poor titanomagnetite of pseudosingle domain magnetic structure nine lavas contain small amounts of titanomaghemite and four lavas additional titano hematite paleosecular variation of lava flows younger than 1 7 ma is consistent with latitude dependent model g and also in agreement with other pleistocene paleomagnetic data from the tmvb the directional record of brunhes and matuyama chrons lavas was correlated to the geomagnetic polarity timescale and there is evidence for at least four geomagnetic excursions one lava flow dated at 592 20 ka has a fully reversed paleodirection and most likely erupted during the big lost excursion another fully reversed flow dated at 671 12 ka gives new volcanic evidence for the delta stage 17 excursion this excursion is supported by a reversed intermediate direction of another flow from a different volcanic field but of very close age of 673 10 ka from the matuyama age lavas one flow with normal polarity magnetization dated at 949 37 ka could either be related to the kamikatsura or the santa rosa excursion and a normal polarity flow dated at 1628 56 ka could have been emplaced during the gilsa excursion the results presented here confirm in one case but disagree in four cases with results presented in two previous studies of the same lava flows and interpreted as geomagnetic excursions

nongeocentric axial dipole field behavior during the mono lake excursion a new record of the mono lake excursion mle is reported from the summer lake basin of oregon usa sediment magnetic properties indicate magnetite as the magnetization carrier and imply suitability of the sediments as accurate recorders of the magnetic field including relative paleointensity rpi variations the magnitudes and phases of the declination inclination and rpi components of the new record correlate well with other coeval but lower resolution records from western north america including records from the wilson creek formation exposed around mono lake the virtual geomagnetic pole vgp path of the new record is similar to that from another high resolution record of the mle from ocean drilling program odp site 919 in the irminger basin between iceland and greenland but different from the vgp path for the laschamp excursion le including that found lower in the odp 919 core thus the prominent excursion recorded at mono lake california is not the le but rather one that is several thousands of years younger the mle vgp path contains clusters the locations of which coincide with nonaxial dipole features found in the holocene geomagnetic field the clusters are occupied in the same time progression by vgps from summer lake and the irminger basin but the phase of occupation is offset a behavior that suggests time transgressive decay and return of the principal field components at the beginning and end of the mle respectively leaving the nonaxial dipole features associated with the clusters dominant during the excursion

age and duration of the matuyama brunhes geomagnetic polarity reversal from 40ar39ar incremental heating analyses of lavas abstract constraints on the timing of geomagnetic polarity reversals have come mainly from k ar or more recently 40 ar 39 ar age determinations of lavas or their k rich phenocrysts that erupted prior or subsequent to particular geomagnetic events we have obtained 40 ar 39 ar isochron ages using incremental heating techniques on groundmass separates phenocryst poor whole rock samples or plagioclase from eight basaltic to andesitic lavas that erupted during the matuyama brunhes m b polarity transition at four geographically dispersed sites these eight lavas range from 784 6 7 1 ka to 770 8 5 2 ka 1 errors the weighted mean 778 7 1 9 ka gives a high precision age that is remarkably consistent with revised astronomical age estimates for the m b polarity transition 6 12 13 despite uncertainties in absolute calibration of 40 ar 39 ar ages relative to mineral standards used as neutron fluence monitors our age determinations are consistent with five other 40 ar 39 ar studies focused on the m b transition these results confirm that the earlier k ar based geomagnetic polarity time scale underestimated the age of the m b reversal by about 6 none of the eight isochron ages are distinguishable from one another at the 95 confidence level however we are tantalizingly close to testing for the duration of this reversal one lava at the base of a sequence of transitionally magnetized flows in chile and the uppermost lava in a similar sequence on maui are only just indistinguishable in age at the 95 confidence level and preserve different magnetic orientations we suggest that the 12 kyr difference in age represents an upper limit for the duration of the reversal and is similar to the period of low magnetic field intensity associated with records of the m b reversal from deep sea sediment cores together with the short duration 2 kyr of the directional reversal observed in several different marine sediment sections our data suggest that reversal of the field s direction could have occurred at slightly different times depending on the position of the recording site

introduction aapg hedberg research conference on microbial carbonate reservoir characterization conference summary and selected papers with the recent discovery of hydrocarbons in microbial carbonate reservoir facies along the south atlantic margins industry is keen to further the understanding of the origin and development of nonmarine lacustrine to marine microbial carbonates the nature of the depositional and diagenetic characteristics of microbialite and associated facies and the sedimentary and petrophysical properties of microbial carbonate petroleum reservoirs in this regard the authors of aapg getting started series 19 microbial carbonate reservoirs mancini et al 2010 found that a vast literature on microbes and their functions in geological processes and products ranging from biogeochemistry to geomicrobiology sedimentary petrology and stratigraphy was available however only a small part of this literature deals with microbial carbonates as petroleum reservoirs further these authors reported that sparse available literature exists on microbial carbonate reservoirs formed in lacustrine and continental settings and on carbonate reservoirs of abiotic origin in general to help address these shortcomings an aapg hedberg research conference was proposed to focus on microbial carbonate reservoir characterization with an emphasis on depositional settings of microbial and abiotic carbonate reservoirs especially in lacustrine settings associated with rift basins the proposal was accepted august 21 2010 and the hedberg conference was held in houston texas last june 3 8 2012 with 85 attendees from 10 countries the conference was dedicated to wayne m ahr who passed away in november 2011 he was one of the conference organizers one of the intended field trip leaders and a friend to many at the conference the following overview of microbial carbonates is modified from sections 1 and 2 of aapg getting started series 19 microbial carbonate reservoirs mancini et al 2010 microbes are defined as microorganisms visible only under a microscope some examples are bacteria fungi molds algae and protozoa unlike the older classification of living organisms

origin of apparent magnetic excursions in deep sea sediments from mendeleev alpha ridge arctic ocean 1 arctic deep sea sediments often record intervals of negative inclination of natural remanence that are tens of centimeters thick implying magnetic excursions with durations of tens of thousand years that far exceed excursion durations estimated elsewhere and the lack of tight age control usually provides excessive freedom in the labeling of arctic excursions fortuitous variations in sedimentation rate have been invoked to explain the amplified excursions alternating field demagnetization of natural remanent magnetization nrm of sediment cores 08jpc 10jpc 11jpc and 13jpc recovered by the healy oden trans arctic expedition in august 2005 hotrax05 to the mendeleev alpha ridge yields apparent magnetic excursions in sediments deposited in the brunhes chron thermal demagnetization of the nrm however implies multiple magnetization components with negative inclination components usually unblocked below 350 c analysis of isothermal remanent magnetization acquisition curves from magnetic extracts indicates two magnetic coercivity components superimposed on one another magnetic experiments conducted under high and low temperatures show features that are characteristic for titano magnetite and titanomaghemite presence of the two magnetic phases is further confirmed by elemental mapping on a scanning electron microscope equipped for x ray energy dispersive spectroscopy eds and by high resolution x ray diffraction xrd it is unlikely that anomalously thick intervals of negative inclination in these brunhes aged sediments are caused by unusual behavior of the magnetic field in the arctic area we therefore attribute low and negative nrm inclinations in these cores to partially self reversed chemical remanent magnetizations apparently carried by titanomaghemite and acquired during the oxidation of detrital titano magnetite grains the high ti contents and high oxidation states indicated by eds and xrd data provide the conditions required for partial self reversal by ionic reordering during diagenetic maghemitization and this process appears to have affected all hotrax05 cores collected from the mendeleev alpha ridge

deep sea sediment records of the laschamp geomagnetic field excursion 41 000 calendar years before present 1 we have recovered two new high resolution paleomagnetic records of the laschamp excursion 41 000 calendar years b p from deep sea sediments of the western north atlantic ocean the records document that the laschamp excursion was characterized locally by 1 declination changes of 120 2 inclination changes of more than 140 3 1200 year oscillations in both inclination and declination 4 near 90 out of phase relationships between inclinations and declinations that produced two clockwise loops in directions and virtual geomagnetic poles vgps followed by a counterclockwise loop 5 excursional vgps during both intervals of clockwise looping 6 magnetic field intensities less than 10 of normal that persisted for almost 2000 years 7 marked similarity in excursional directions over 5000 km spatial scale length and 8 secular variation rates comparable to historic field behavior but persisting in sign for hundreds of years all of these features with the exception of anomalously large directional amplitude are consistent with normal magnetic field secular variation comparison of our laschamp excursion paleomagnetic records with other late quaternary excursion records suggests that there is a group of excursions which we term class i which have strikingly similar patterns of field behavior and likely share a common cause as part of the overall core dynamo process three general models of secular variation are described that can qualitatively produce class i excursions on the basis of these observations we conclude that class i excursions epitomized by the laschamp excursion are more closely related to normal secular variation and are not necessarily a prelude to magnetic field reversal

relative paleointensity rpi and oxygen isotope stratigraphy at iodp site u1308 north atlantic rpi stack for 1 2 2 2 ma narpi 2200 and age of the olduvai subchron 2015 elsevier ltd integrated ocean drilling program iodp site u1308 49 53 n 24 14 w water depth 3871 m provides a record of relative paleointensity rpi and benthic stable isotope stratigraphy back to 3 2 ma the record since 1 5 ma was published previously and here we present the interval from 1 5 ma to 3 2 ma early pleistocene late pliocene the benthic oxygen isotope record in this interval is correlated to marine isotope stage mis 51 to km2 with an apparent hiatus that removed part of the interval spanning mis 104 g2 2 6 2 65 ma at the gauss matuyama boundary the mean sedimentation rate for the 1 5 3 2 ma period is 8 5 cm kyr the age model was built by correlation of the benthic oxygen isotope record to a global stack lr04 apart from the expected polarity reversals three magnetic excursions are recorded punaruu in mis 31 32 at 1092 ka gilsa in mis 54 55 at 1584 ka and a newly recognized excursion labeled porcupine after the nearby porcupine abyssal plain in mis g6 g7 at 2737 ka the ages of polarity reversals at site u1308 on the lr04 time scale are consistent with the current geomagnetic polarity timescale gpts with the exception of the base of the olduvai subchron that occurred in mis 73 corresponding to 1925 ka on the lr04 time scale 25 kyr younger than in the current gpts the rpi record at site u1308 is calibrated using the oxygen isotope age model and combined with four other north atlantic records to obtain a north atlantic rpi stack for 1 2 2 2 ma narpi 2200 that is compared with published rpi stacks epapis sint 2000 and padm2m for 2 2 3 2 ma the site u1308 rpi record is compared with a rpi record from north atlantic iodp site u1314 and with the pacific epapis stack the mean sedimentation rates of the north atlantic sites in narpi 2200 are greater by about an order of magnitude than most of the records incorporated in other stacks the comparison of epapis and narpi 2200 yields an apparent lag for narpi 2200 relative to epapis attributed the epapis age model constructed by correlation of magnetic concentration parameters a proxy for carbonate percentage to a calibrated oxygen isotope record the long rpi record from site u1308 yields a very similar mean value for the brunhes and matuyama virtual axial dipole moments 7 05 1022 am2 implying no polarity bias in the strength of the main geomagnetic dipole in contrast to interpretations from sint 2000 and padm2m the results strengthen the case that rpi can be used to improve global stratigraphic correlation for sites with mean sedimentation rates up to several decimeters kyr

geomagnetic intensity variations over the past 780 kyr obtained from near seafloor magnetic anomalies knowledge of past variations in the intensity of the earth s magnetic field provides an important constraint on models of the geodynamo a record of absolute palaeointensity for the past 50 kyr has been compiled from archaeomagnetic and volcanic materials and relative palaeointensities over the past 800 kyr have been obtained from sedimentary sequences but a long term record of geomagnetic intensity should also be carried by the thermoremanence of the oceanic crust here we show that near seafloor magnetic anomalies recorded over the southern east pacific rise are well correlated with independent estimates of geomagnetic intensity during the past 780 kyr moreover the pattern of absolute palaeointensity of seafloor glass samples from the same area agrees with the well documented dipole intensity pattern for the past 50 kyr a comparison of palaeointensities derived from seafloor glass samples with global intensity variations thus allows us to estimate the ages of surficial lava flows in this region the record of geomagnetic intensity preserved in the oceanic crust should provide a higher time resolution record of crustal accretion processes at mid ocean ridges than has previously been obtainable

odp site 1063 bermuda rise revisited oxygen isotopes excursions and paleointensity in the brunhes chron an age model for the brunhes chron of ocean drilling program odp site 1063 bermuda rise is constructed by tandem correlation of oxygen isotope and relative paleointensity data to calibrated reference templates four intervals in the brunhes chron where paleomagnetic inclinations are negative for both u channel samples and discrete samples are correlated to the following magnetic excursions with site 1063 ages in brackets laschamp 41 ka blake 116 ka iceland basin 190 ka pringle falls 239 ka these ages are consistent with current age estimates for three of these excursions but not for pringle falls which has an apparent age older than a recently published estimate by 28 kyr for each of these excursions termed category 1 excursions virtual geomagnetic poles vgps reach high southerly latitudes implying paired polarity reversals of the earth s main dipole field that apparently occurred in a brief time span 2 kyr in each case several times shorter than the apparent duration of regular polarity transitions in addition several intervals of low paleomagnetic inclination low and negative in one case are observed both in u channel and discrete samples at 318 ka mis 9 412 ka mis 11 and in the 500 600 ka interval mis 14 15 these category 2 excursions may constitute inadequately recorded category 1 excursions or high amplitude secular variation

paleomagnetic record at odp site 980 feni drift rockall for the past 1 2 myrs 1 a detailed record of variations in the direction and intensity of the geomagnetic field over the past 1 2 myrs has been obtained from an 120 m thick sedimentary section cored at odp site 980 on the feni drift north atlantic the record has high resolution due to high mean sedimentation rates 11 3 cm kyr for the brunhes chron and 5 5 cm kyr for the matuyama chron paleomagnetic measurements every 1 cm along u channel samples and high quality isotopic age control the iceland basin event is manifest by virtual geomagnetic poles crossing the equator at 190 ka the base of the recovered section lies immediately below the cobb mountain subchronozone that occurs within marine isotope stage 35 normalized remanence data can be correlated to paleointensity records from odp sites 983 and 984 700 km to the nw from site 980 and with lower resolution paleointensity data from the pacific ocean differences between the site 980 paleointensity record and the pacific records are attributed to variable sedimentation rates variable quality age control and inadequacies in the normalization procedure used to derive the paleointensity proxies

paleointensity studies of a lava succession from jilin province northeastern china evidence for the blake event paleomagnetic results are presented from a volcanic sequence in tianchi jilin province northeastern china five basalt lava flows can be identified at the sampling site with ages from 210 4 to 88 15 kyr b p rock magnetic analyses and reflected light microscopy indicate that magnetite with a significant fraction of pseudo single domain grains is dominant in these lava flows a single stable characteristic remanence can be thermally isolated above 150 200 c intermediate direction is preserved in lava 3 at an age of 123 kyr corresponding to the blake event and its virtual geomagnetic pole is located in eastern asia and australia from a total of 121 specimens used for paleointensity determinations by the thellier method in an argon atmosphere 34 specimens yielded reliable results with low within flow scatter the results indicate that a significant intensity low is coincident with the blake event

ultra high precision 40ar 39ar ages for fish canyon tuff and alder creek rhyolite sanidine new dating standards required abstract the 40 ar 39 ar dating technique is a high precision 40 ar 39 ar standards include sanidine from the ca 28 ma fish canyon tuff fct and the ca 1 2 ma alder creek rhyolite acr despite common usage the ages of fct and acr sanidine have proven contentious with reported values varying by 2 well outside the 0 1 aspiration of earthtime www earth time org the current study presents ultra high precision multi collector 40 ar 39 ar results for fct and acr sanidine using a new generation argusvi mass spectrometer these analyses demonstrate the significantly higher by a factor of 10 level of precision achievable using the argusvi system compared to most previous studies significantly 40 ar 39 ar step heating analyses resolve distinct age gradients for both fct and acr sanidine possible explanations for these gradients include combinations of recoil loss of 39 ar instrumental bias isotopic fractionation during step heating thermally induced argon loss and or extraneous argon contamination minor recoil loss of 39 ar and partial retention of inherited argon during extended magma residence are deemed the most plausible causes of the age discordance given this assumption we calculate revised maximum eruption ages of 28 01 0 04 ma 2 for fct and 1 178 0 002 ma 2 for acr relative to the astronomically calibrated age of a1 tephra sanidine crete rivera et al 2011 earth planet sci lett 311 420 426 nonetheless the argusvi data demonstrate that fct and acr sanidine are non ideal as high precision 40 ar 39 ar standards with different heating protocols likely to induce inter laboratory bias the current findings account for at least some of the scatter in inter calibration ages reported previously for various 40 ar 39 ar standards in broader terms the results mandate a re evaluation of the astronomically calibrated ages for these and other sanidine samples while the new generation of multi collector mass spectrometers provides the means to further evaluate 40 ar 39 ar ages used to define new decay constants and standard ages

millennial scale climate instability during the early pleistocene epoch climate proxy records of the past 100 000 years show that the earth s climate has varied significantly and continuously on timescales as short as a few thousand years 1 7 similar variability has also recently been observed for the interval 340 500 thousand years ago8 these dramatic climate shifts expressed most strongly in the north atlantic region may be linked to and possibly amplified by alterations in the mode of ocean thermohaline circulation4 5 6 7 8 9 here we use sediment records of past iceberg discharge and deep water chemistry to show that such millennial scale oscillations in climate occurred over one million years ago this was a time of significantly different climate boundary conditions not only was the early pleistocene epoch generally warmer but global climate variations were governed largely by changes in earth s orbital obliguity our results suggest that such millennial scale climate instability may be a pervasive and long term characteristic of earth s climate rather than just a feature of the strong glacial interglacial cycles of the past 800 000 years