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A 3500‐year paleomagnetic record of Late Holocene secular variation from Blue Lake, Idaho
Author(s) -
Hanna Ruth L.,
Verosub Kenneth L.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl015i007p00685
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , paleomagnetism , geology , declination , secular variation , holocene , geochronology , paleontology , stratigraphy , magnetic declination , physical geography , geophysics , geography , earth's magnetic field , astronomy , physics , quantum mechanics , magnetic field , tectonics
Three meters of sediment from Blue Lake, Idaho, have provided a 3500‐year paleomagnetic record with low scatter and good serial correlation. Comparison of the Blue Lake record with the record from Fish Lake, Oregon, reveals differences of up to 963 years for secular variation extrema based on the separate radiocarbon chronologies for Blue Lake and Fish Lake. To achieve a common time scale, the Blue Lake record was redated using the Fish Lake ages for five major inclination extrema. With this adjusted time scale, the excellent correspondence between the declination records confirms the extremal correlations and demonstrates that paleomagnetic correlations may provide more accuracy for relative stratigraphy than radiocarbon dating. The morphological agreement between the smoothed records documents secular variation features with wavelengths of 1000‐2000 years and amplitudes of 10°‐20° in inclination and 20°‐30° in declination. Examination of the unsmoothed records indicates that features with wavelengths of less than a few hundred years and amplitudes of less than 5° are probably noise.