A new Holocene record of geomagnetic secular variation from Windermere, UK

Abstract

Paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) records serve as valuable independent stratigraphic correlation and dating tools for marine and terrestrial sediment sequences, and enhance knowledge of geomagnetic field dynamics. We present a new radiocarbon-dated record (WINPSV-12K) of Holocene geomagnetic secular variation from Windermere, updating the existing 1981 UK master PSV curve. Our analyses used continuous U-channel samples taken from the center of four sediment cores retrieved from Windermere in 2012. The natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of each U-channel was measured before and after stepwise alternating field (AF) demagnetization on a superconducting rock magnetometer at intervals of 0.5-cm or 1-cm. The NRM data reveal a stable and well-defined primary magnetization.

Component declinations and inclinations estimated using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of NRM data from the four Windermere cores correlate well on their independent radiocarbon age models. The four records were stacked using a sliding window bootstrap method, resulting in a composite Holocene PSV record (WINPSV-12K).
On millennial timescales WINPSV-12K correlates well with other records from Western Europe and the northern North Atlantic to a resolution of ~1 kyr, given age uncertainties and spatial variability between records. WINPSV-12K also compares well to the CALS10k.2 and pfm9k.1a model predictions for Windermere. Key regionally-significant PSV inclination features of WINPSV-12K which correlate with other North Atlantic records include peaks at 5 – 6, 8.5, and 10 cal ka BP, and a trough at 7 cal ka BP. Key PSV declination features include the eastward swing from 5.5 – 2.3 cal ka BP followed by a major westward excursion at 2.3 cal ka BP, peaks at 1.1 and 7cal ka BP, and troughs at 5.4 and 8.2 cal ka BP, with the caveat that an estimated magnetic lock-in delay of at least 100 – 200 years is present. PSV variations on 1 – 3 kyr timescales are interpreted to represent strengthening and weakening of the North American versus the Siberian and European-Mediterranean high-latitude flux lobes, based on the close similarities between the North Atlantic regional records and the antiphase existing in the East Asian Stack record and the North East Pacific inclination stack. WINPSV-12K provides a regionally-important new PSV reference curve whose prominent features may serve as stratigraphic markers for North Atlantic paleo-records.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Rachael S. Avery: orcid.org/0000-0002-4439-4174

ORCID for Chuang Xuan: orcid.org/0000-0003-4043-3073

ORCID for Jonathan M. Bull: orcid.org/0000-0003-3373-5807

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics