Late Quaternary paleomagnetic secular variation, relative paleointensity, and environmental magnetism from Cascade Lake, Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska

Abstract:

Two sediment cores from Cascade Lake (68.38°N, 154.60°W), Arctic Alaska were selected for paleomagnetic analysis to compare ¹⁴C age control with paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) and relative paleointensity (RPI) age control derived from field models and other local sedimentary records. Rock magnetic experiments were performed to quantify variability in magnetic properties and to infer sediment sourcing during the late Quaternary. U-channels were studied through AF demagnetization of the natural remanent magnetization, and laboratory-induced magnetizations including anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) acquisition, ARM demagnetization, and isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM). Maximum angular deviation values average <2°, indicating a strong, well-defined characteristic remanent magnetization dominated by a low-coercivity component that increases up core. Average inclinations are within 4° of the expected geocentric axial dipole, and major inclination features can be correlated across the two cores. Correlation of inclination changes with the Burial Lake record, 200 km to the west (Dorfman, 2013, unpub. thesis), indicates that the Cascade Lake sedimentary sequence overlying the basal diamicton likely spans at least 16 ka. Cascade Lake sediments may be suitable for RPI estimation using the ARM or IRM as a normalizer, following a more detailed examination of magnetic properties. A systematic offset between the Cascade Lake ¹⁴C chronology and PSV and RPI chronologies wiggle-matched to field models suggests a hard-water effect of ~1000 yr, although we cannot rule out the possibility that at least some of the age offset represents a post-depositional remanent magnetization lock-in effect at Cascade Lake. S-ratios (IRM_0.3T/SIRM) and ARM-ratios (ARM/SIRM) show a sharp decrease in low-coercivity material across the transition from clastic sediments to organic-rich sediments, followed by an increase in the concentration of fine-grained magnetic material and fining of the magnetic grain size up core, along with an increase in organic matter after ~10 ka. Cascade Lake has no significant inflow, therefore this trend in magnetic mineralogy may represent decreasing input of local material from hillslope processes superposed on a persistent eolian input through the Holocene.