High-resolution paleomagnetic records from Laguna Potrok Aike (Patagonia, Argentina) for the last 16,000 years

Abstract

Holocene and Late-glacial records documenting variations in direction and intensity of the geomagnetic field during the last 16,000 cal. BP are presented for Southern Patagonia. This continuous high-resolution terrestrial record from Laguna Potrok Aike (5158S, 7023W) was recovered within the SALSA (South Argentinean Lake Sediment Archives and modeling) project. Mineral magnetic measurements indicate that pseudo single-domain magnetite is the major carrier of the remanence allowing the reliable determination of stable natural remanent magnetization inclinations and declinations from alternating field demagnetization and principal component analysis. Paleomagnetic secular variation records reveal most of the familiar features of declination and inclination that have previously been reported in other records from South Argentina but conspicuous centennial-scale differences are also observed. The results illustrate the potential of paleosecular variations records for dating sedimentary sequences in southern South America. Copyright 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.