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    Magnetostratigraphy and Radiometric Chronology
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    Abstract:
    This paper briefly reviews the history and present status of magnetostratigraphy, and re-examines the usefulness of magnetostratigraphy in absolute chronology. At present, two different kinds of time scale are used as standards for magnetostratigraphic age determination. The first is that time scale developed from a combination of paleomagnetic polarity data and radiometric age dates derived from volcanic rock sequences on land. The second is based on the interrelationships between the sequence of geomagnetic reversals and marine planktonic microfossils. Usually, these time scales are assumed to be equivalent.Based on the collection of radiometric dates made on magneto- and biostratigraphically-studied sedimentary sections, the relationships between the geomagnetic-radiometric and geomagnetic-microbiostratigraphic time scales were examined. A distinct discrepancy was noticed between the radiometric age and the estimated absolute age from the magnetic-microbiostratigraphic scale, as indicated in Fig. 5. This discrepancy is worthy of serious consideration by uses of the geomagnetic time scale in absolute chronology. Further examination of various methods of measurement is needed to increase the reliability of magnetostratigraphy, microbiostratigraphy and radiometric chronology.In Japanese marine sedimentary sections, there exist many pyroclastic intercalations that may provide suitable materials for such examinations.
    Keywords:
    Magnetostratigraphy
    Radiometric dating
    Chronology
    Geomagnetic reversal
    Geomagnetic secular variation
    Absolute dating
    ABSTRACT The history of geomagnetic polarity reversals in the Cenozoic and Late Mesozoic is well known since the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian). A continuous record of polarity has been derived for this time interval from the interpretation of oceanic magnetic anomalies. Most of the polarity chrons in this oceanic record have been verified and dated in coordinated magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic studies. This has led to the generation of progressively refined and improved geomagnetic reversal time‐scales that provide a framework for absolute dating of palaeontological zonations. By serving as a basis for statistical analysis of reversal frequency they provide information relevant to processes in the Earth's core. The rate of reversals since the Late Cretaceous shows a steady increase on which a cyclical variation appears to be superposed. A stochastic model for reversals predicts a Poisson distribution of polarity interval lengths. The polarity time scales contain many fewer short (± 50 kyr) polarity chrons than a Poisson distribution, and it has been suggested that a gamma renewal process with index greater than unity is a more appropriate statistical model. The statistical arguments give no convincing reason for abandoning the model and other, physical reasons must be sought to explain the incompleteness of the reversal record. The discovery and verification of short chrons in the oceanic record may best be investigated by deep‐tow magnetometer surveys. The reversal history before the Late Jurassic is not well known. Magnetostratigraphy in coeval Early Jurassic sections has not given correlatable records and it has not been possible to compile a definitive polarity sequence. Evaluation of geomagnetic polarity history for the Early Mesozoic and the Palaeozoic will require unambiguous magnetostratigraphy in well‐dated sections where verification of the polarity pattern is possible at the fossil zone or stage level.
    Geomagnetic reversal
    Magnetostratigraphy
    Polarity (international relations)
    Polarity reversal
    Abstract Fine‐grained magnetic particles in deep‐sea sediments often statistically align with the ambient magnetic field during (and shortly after) deposition and can therefore record geomagnetic reversals. Correlation of these reversals to a geomagnetic polarity time scale is an important geochronological tool that facilitates precise stratigraphic correlation and dating of geological records globally. Sediments often carry a remanence strong enough for confident identification of polarity reversals, but in some cases a low signal‐to‐noise ratio prevents the construction of a reliable and robust magnetostratigraphy. Here we implement a data‐filtering protocol, which can be integrated with the UPmag software package, to automatically reduce the maximum angular deviation and statistically mask noisy data and outliers deemed unsuitable for magnetostratigraphic interpretation. This protocol thus extracts a clearer signal from weakly magnetized sediments recovered at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 342 Site U1406 (Newfoundland margin, northwest Atlantic Ocean). The resulting magnetostratigraphy, in combination with shipboard and shore‐based biostratigraphy, provides an age model for the study interval from IODP Site U1406 between Chrons C6Ar and C9n (∼21–27 Ma). We identify rarely observed geomagnetic directional changes within Chrons C6Br, C7r, and C7Ar, and perhaps within Subchron C8n.1n. Our magnetostratigraphy dates three intervals of unusual stratigraphic behavior within the sediment drifts at IODP Site U1406 on the Newfoundland margin. These lithostratigraphic changes are broadly concurrent with the coldest climatic phases of the middle Oligocene to early Miocene and we hypothesize that they reflect changes in bottom water circulation.
    Magnetostratigraphy
    Geomagnetic reversal
    Palaeogeography
    Lithostratigraphy
    Citations (18)
    This paper briefly reviews the history and present status of magnetostratigraphy, and re-examines the usefulness of magnetostratigraphy in absolute chronology. At present, two different kinds of time scale are used as standards for magnetostratigraphic age determination. The first is that time scale developed from a combination of paleomagnetic polarity data and radiometric age dates derived from volcanic rock sequences on land. The second is based on the interrelationships between the sequence of geomagnetic reversals and marine planktonic microfossils. Usually, these time scales are assumed to be equivalent.Based on the collection of radiometric dates made on magneto- and biostratigraphically-studied sedimentary sections, the relationships between the geomagnetic-radiometric and geomagnetic-microbiostratigraphic time scales were examined. A distinct discrepancy was noticed between the radiometric age and the estimated absolute age from the magnetic-microbiostratigraphic scale, as indicated in Fig. 5. This discrepancy is worthy of serious consideration by uses of the geomagnetic time scale in absolute chronology. Further examination of various methods of measurement is needed to increase the reliability of magnetostratigraphy, microbiostratigraphy and radiometric chronology.In Japanese marine sedimentary sections, there exist many pyroclastic intercalations that may provide suitable materials for such examinations.
    Magnetostratigraphy
    Radiometric dating
    Chronology
    Geomagnetic reversal
    Geomagnetic secular variation
    Absolute dating
    Citations (0)
    To obtain a better understanding of the relationship between calcrete genesis and the results of different absolute dating methods, thermoluminescence (TL), radiocarbon ( 14 C) and uranium/thorium (U/Th) were applied to coeval sample; take from a very young calcrete profile in Namibia. The methodically different ages reflect the characteristics of the applied dating methods, the genetics of calcrete and different events of calcrete genesis. The conventional 14 C ages and the TL dates cover the last 50 ka, while the corresponding U/Th dates of coeval samples are many times larger, Uranium-series dates are not related to the deposition of the host material or to its cementation if the ages are smaller than ca . 120 ka. The TL clock is set to zero during eolian transport and the corresponding radiometric ages of the quartz and feldspar grains date the time of their deposition. The 14 C ages of the cement correspond, on the other hand, to a time shortly after the onset of the cementation and long before its termination. In the case of very old calcrete, the mixture of young and old cement results in ambiguous ages if they cannot be confirmed by an independent technique.
    Radiometric dating
    Absolute dating
    Cementation (geology)
    Thermoluminescence dating
    K–Ar dating
    Citations (38)
    The essential ideas behind the major methods for assessing the relative ages of geological and archeological materials and events are reviewed. These include the principles of original horizontality, superposition, inclusion, cross-cutting relations, and cross-dating by index fossils (biological succession) or artifacts. Some general principles of absolute dating are introduced, and, as representatives of non-radiometric methods, tree-ring, thermoluminescence, obsidian hydration, and amino acid racemization dating are discussed with examples.
    Radiometric dating
    Absolute dating
    Absolute (philosophy)
    Citations (1)