Open AccessThe maximum likelihood dating of magnetostratigraphic sections
Author(s) -
Man Otakar
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical journal international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0956-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.2010.04920.x
Subject(s) - magnetostratigraphy , polarity (international relations) , geology , earth's magnetic field , remanence , geomagnetic reversal , maximization , stratigraphy , paleomagnetism , paleontology , scale (ratio) , section (typography) , mathematics , magnetization , physics , computer science , mathematical optimization , magnetic field , tectonics , quantum mechanics , biology , cell , genetics , operating system
SUMMARY In general, stratigraphic sections are dated by biostratigraphy and magnetic polarity stratigraphy (MPS) is subsequently used to improve the dating of specific section horizons or to correlate these horizons in different sections of similar age. This paper shows, however, that the identification of a record of a sufficient number of geomagnetic polarity reversals against a reference scale often does not require any complementary information. The deposition and possible subsequent erosion of the section is herein regarded as a stochastic process, whose discrete time increments are independent and normally distributed. This model enables the expression of the time dependence of the magnetic record of section increments in terms of probability. To date samples bracketing the geomagnetic polarity reversal horizons, their levels are combined with various sequences of successive polarity reversals drawn from the reference scale. Each particular combination gives rise to specific constraints on the unknown ages of the primary remanent magnetization of samples. The problem is solved by the constrained maximization of the likelihood function with respect to these ages and parameters of the model, and by subsequent maximization of this function over the set of possible combinations. A statistical test of the significance of this solution is given. The application of this algorithm to various published magnetostratigraphic sections that included nine or more polarity reversals gave satisfactory results. This possible self‐sufficiency makes MPS less dependent on other dating techniques.