The Gilbert/Gauss sedimentary geomagnetic reversal record from southern Sicily

A detailed paleomagnetic record of the Gilbert/Gauss reversal boundary in deep sea marls from southern Sicily shows that the remanence characterising the reversal is carried by a high‐temperature magnetite component. A low‐temperature component is intermediate between the high temperature component and a present‐day overprint, suggesting that it is obscured by weathering. The actual reversal record is clearly affected by filtering caused by early diagenetic acquisition of a chemical remanent magnetisation (CRM). Intermediate VGPs show a general confinement to a longitude over the Americas. More specifically, they are restricted to two clusters, a less distinct one off SE South America, and a very prominent one near NE North America The remarkable coincidence with two ‘Hoffmann clusters’ [Hoffmann, 1992] suggests that even a CRM acquisition filter cannot entirely obscure long‐lived transitional features.