The absence of the Mono Lake geomagnetic excursion from the paleomagnetic record of Clear Lake, California

Abstract

Paleomagnetic measurements have been made on a continuously sampled, 5-m section of a core from Clear Lake, California. The sediments studied span an 8000-year interval centered at 25,000 years B.P., the approximate date of the large-scale, counterclockwise loop of the magnetic vector recorded in sediments from Mono Lake, California. The data from Mono Lake have been interpreted as a geomagnetic excursion with a duration of 600–1000 years. Because Clear Lake is only 320 km from Mono Lake and since each sample from Clear Lake represents 26 years of sedimentation, the magnetic signature of the Mono Lake geomagnetic excursion should be recorded in detail in the Clear Lake samples. Aside from a generally uniform shallowing of inclinations due to compaction, the paleomagnetic record from Clear Lake contains no anomalous features which would correspond to the Mono Lake excursion. Thus it has yet to be shown that the Mono Lake excursion was recorded anywhere besides Mono Lake. Even if the existence of the excursion is ultimately confirmed, its usefulness as a magnetostratigraphic horizon is limited.