Magnetic methods and the timing of geological processes

• DOI: 10.1144/sp373.17
• Publication Date: 2013-04-26T04:01:47Z
• Authors: L. Jovane; L. Hinnov; B. A. Housen; E. Herrero-Barvera
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Abstract Magnetostratigraphy is best known as a technique that employs correlation among different stratigraphic sections using the magnetic directions that define geomagnetic polarity reversals as marker-horizons. The ages of the polarity reversals provide common tie points among the sections, allowing accurate time correlation. Recently, magnetostratigraphy has acquired a broader meaning, now referring to many types of magnetic measurements within a stratigraphic sequence. Many of these measurements provide correlation and age control not only for the older and younger boundaries of a polarity interval, but also within intervals. Thus, magnetostratigraphy no longer represents a dating tool based only on the geomagnetic polarity reversals, but comprises a set of techniques that includes measurements of all geomagnetic field parameters, environmental magnetism, rock magnetic and palaeoclimatic change recorded in sedimentary rocks, and key corrections to magnetic directions related to geodynamics, tectonics and diagenetic processes.