Lake sediment record of the geomagnetic secular variation in Britain during Holocene times

Abstract

Summary. A palaeomagnetic record of the geomagnetic secular variation during the last 10000 years has been obtained from 10 cores of sediment from Loch Lomond, Scotland, Lake Windermere, North England, and Llyn Geirionydd, North Wales. A time-scale is provided by 30 radiocarbon age determinations and pollen analyses on several of the cores. The main swings and much fine detail of both declination and inclination records repeat well between cores and between lakes, and the overall record is much more detailed than previous European records. The new record shows that neither declination nor inclination swings have been periodic over the past 10000 years, but that the main swings have become progressively shorter in duration during that time. Each swing is characterized by fine detail which enables use of the record as a secondary method of dating other European sediments. The motion of the geomagnetic vector has been predominantly clockwise throughout the time period spanned, but confirms a period of anticlockwise motion from 1100 to 600 bp first discovered by British archaeomagnetic investigations. The record agrees with British and Czechoslovakian archaeomagnetic records, but not with Japanese archaeomagnetic or North American lake sediment records. This suggests that the secular changes are controlled by local growing and decaying, drifting sources, rather than by wobbling of the main geomagnetic dipole.