Paleo- and rock magnetic study in support of the Laguna Potrok Aike maar lake sediment archive drilling project

C. S. G. GOGORZA

Bremen

Seminario; Seminar der AG Geopolar; 2010

Geomorphologie und Polarforschung (GEOPOLAR) / Institut fuer Geographie, FB 8 de la Universidad de Bremen (Alemania)

Lake sediments are widely used as high-resolution natural archives of past environmental and climatic conditions as well as of paleomagnetic variations on local, regional and global scales. Magnetic methods have the advantage of being rapid, simple, and non-destructive. They have successfully been applied (1) for core correlation, (2) as paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic proxies, and (3) in reconstructing geomagnetic secular variation. Rock magnetic parameters of lake sediments reveal lithologic changes that can reflect environmental responses to changes in paleoclimate. They attempt to characterize the sediment in terms of mineralogy, mineral concentration and particle size distribution. These magnetic parameters reflect either changes in the sources and transport mechanisms of sediments or chemical and biological processes during their early diagenesis which control the iron mineralogy. On the other hand, paleomagnetic techniques are concerned with the reconstruction of the geomagnetic field and its variation in both orientation and intensity through time.