GeoArchMag SIGNED

Project "GeoArchMag" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

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 Project objective

For decades the Holocene has been considered a flat and “boring” epoch from the standpoint of paleomagnetism, mainly due to insufficient resolution of the available paleomagnetic data. However, recent archaeomagnetic data have revealed that the Holocene geomagnetic field is anything but stable – presenting puzzling intervals of extreme decadal-scale fluctuations and unexpected departures from a simple dipolar field structure. This new information introduced an entirely new paradigm to the study of the geomagnetic field and to a wide range of research areas relying on paleomagnetic data, such as geochronology, climate research, and geodynamo exploration. This proposal aims at breaking the resolution limits in paleomagnetism, and providing a continuous time series of the geomagnetic field vector throughout the Holocene at decadal resolution and unprecedented accuracy. To this end I will use an innovative assemblage of data sources, jointly unique to the Levant, including rare archaeological finds, annual laminated stalagmites, varved sediments, and arid playa deposits. Together, these sources can provide unprecedented yearly resolution, whereby the “absolute” archaeomagnetic data can calibrate “relative” terrestrial data. The geomagnetic data will define an innovative absolute geomagnetic chronology that will be used to synchronize cosmogenic 10Be data and an extensive body of paleo-climatic indicators. With these in hand, I will address four ground-breaking problems: I) Chronology: Developing dating technique for resolving critical controversies in Levantine archaeology and Quaternary geology. II) Geophysics: Exploring fine-scale geodynamo features in Earth’s core from new generations of global geomagnetic models. III) Cosmogenics: Correlating fast geomagnetic variations with cosmogenic isotope production rate. IV) Climate: Testing one of the most challenging controversial questions in geomagnetism: “Does the Earth's magnetic field play a role in climate changes?”