New constraints on historical dipole field decay: Four centuries of archaeointensity from Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract:

Current global geomagnetic field models suffer from strong bias towards Northern Hemisphere data. Absolute intensity measurements from the Southern Hemisphere are key to understanding the evolution of the field over the historical era, especially recent strengthening of non-dipole contributions, and the appearance of the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly (SAMA). I present the first archaeointensity data for locally-fired historical bricks from several well-dated sites (1660-2009 AD) in Cape Town, South Africa. These data constitute the first archaeomagnetic intensity variation curve for southern Africa for the past few centuries. The ages of the sites are tightly constrained by historical and archaeological considerations. Archaeointensity data obtained by the Thellier and Thellier method (modified by Coe), are corrected for both TRM anisotropy and cooling rate dependence of TRM acquisition. Analysis of magnetic mineralogy was performed to aid selection of fragments. Reliable archaeointensity determinations were obtained for 48 of 80 specimens, and 45 were retained in the final analysis. Intensity results vary from 24.3 ± 0.6 µT (modern brick) to 40.7 ± 0.8 µT (1660 AD), corresponding to Virtual Axial Dipole Moments (VADMs) between 6.1 ± 0.2 and 10.2 ± 0.2 נ10²² Am². Results are generally not in agreement with current field models, but are coherent with other archaeomagnetic datasets from the Southern Hemisphere. The possible reasons for this are discussed, as well as implications for the historical evolution of the field.