Magnetic stratigraphy of the travertine-complex from Weimar-Ehringsdorf (Thüringen, Deutschland) - a terrestrial record of oxygen isotope stage 7

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Klaus Krumsiek (†)
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: from 2000 to 2001
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5286424

The travertine-complex Weimar-Ehringsdorf represents a unique terrestrial record of oxygen isotope stage 7 covering the time interval from 180 to 250 ka. Direct dating by means of TIMS uranium series technique allows the contruction of an independent time scale. Regarding the average thickness of about 20 m an average sedimentation rate of about 29 cm/kyr has to be assumed. Recent paleomagnetic investigations of this period prove the existence of at least two polarity events. Ages of 170 to 210 ka can be found in the literature for the Biwa I or Jamaica and for a slightly older polarity event termed Pringle Falls (younger than 218 +/- 10 ka), Fram Strait (216 - 224 ka) or Calabrian Ridge 0 (261 +/- 3 ka) dated around 210 to 260 ka. The recently compiled SINT-800 (synthetic intensity record of the past 800 ka) record reveals a distinct minimum at 190 ka, the most pronounced feature of the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) apart from the B/M-reversal. The main aim of the planed project is a paleomagnetic investigation of the travertine-complex Weimar-Ehringsdorf to prove its suitability as a high resolution recorder of the EMF.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants