A Holocene paleosecular variation record from the northwestern Barents Sea continental margin

A high‐resolution paleomagnetic and rock magnetic study has been carried out on sediment cores collected
in glaciomarine silty‐clay sequences from the continental shelf and slope of the southern Storfjorden
trough‐mouth fan, on the northwestern Barents Sea continental margin. The Storfjorden sedimentary
system was investigated during the SVAIS and EGLACOM cruises, when 10 gravity cores, with a variable
length from 1.03 m to 6.41 m, were retrieved. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C analyses on
24 samples indicate that the cores span a time interval that includes the Holocene, the last deglaciation phase
and in some cores the last glacial maximum. The sediments carry a well‐defined characteristic remanent
magnetization and have a valuable potential to reconstruct the paleosecular variation (PSV) of the geomagnetic
field, including relative paleointensity (RPI) variations. The paleomagnetic data allow reconstruction
of past dynamics and amplitude of the geomagnetic field variations at high northern latitudes (75°–76° N).
At the same time, the rock magnetic and paleomagnetic data allow a high‐resolution correlation of the
sedimentary sequences and a refinement of their preliminary age models. The Holocene PSV and RPI
records appear particularly sound, since they are consistent between cores and they can be correlated to
the closest regional stacking curves (UK PSV, FENNOSTACK and FENNORPIS) and global geomagnetic
model for the last 7 ka (CALS7k.2). The computed amplitude of secular variation is lower than that
outlined by some geomagnetic field models, suggesting that it has been almost independent from latitude
during the Holocene.

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