Wavelet-based verification of a relative paleointensity record from the North Pacific

Abstract

We present a relative paleointensity (RPI) record for the last similar to 1.1 Myr estimated from a sediment core in the central North Pacific, with quality verification using wavelet analysis. Rock magnetic analysis reveals that a stable remanence is carried mainly by single-domain (SD) biogenic magnetite and pseudo-SD detrital magnetite and that concentration- and grain-size-related bulk magnetic parameters vary by a factor of 3, initially meeting a conventional standard for RPI estimation. However, a further test using wavelet spectra of RPI proxies normalized by anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) or isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) shows intermittent orbital contamination at period of 100 kyr. A part of the 100-kyr orbital frequency in ARM-normalized RPI has a coherence and physical relationship with the normalizer. For the same time interval, a prominent 100-kyr cycle in the ARM/IRM wavelet spectra is also coherent with RPI, indicating that relative changes in biogenic and detrital magnetite were not well compensated by ARM normalization. For the selected RPI proxy using IRM normalization, a significant physical relationship with the lithology of magnetic minerals was not detected in the wavelet analysis, and thus, its intermittent orbital cycles could be of climatic origin, probably induced by non-magnetic factors. Nevertheless, our RPI record is consistent with global RPI stacks and provides a successful reconstruction of paleointensity with geomagnetic field origin in the North Pacific.