Magnetostratigraphy of ODP Hole 157-953C (Table 1)

A thick sequence of volcaniclastic sediments drilled at site 953 during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 157 northeast of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) contains an almost complete magneto-stratigraphy back to the shield stage of the island 14.8 Ma ago. Onshore, a sequence of reversals has been identified and dated in 19 dominantly peralkaline rhyolitic ignimbrites, one rhyolitic, and one basaltic lava flow of the Mogán Group (13.35-13.95 Ma), which overlie basalt flows of the island's shield stage (>14 Ma). The magneto-stratigraphy of the ignimbrites onshore has been correlated with the marine magneto-stratigraphy at site 953, determined in syn-ignimbritic volcaniclastic turbidites, which were deposited practically synchronously immediately following the entry of the parent pyroclastic flows into the sea around the circumference of the island. The four polarity intervals recorded in the sequence of the Mogán Group ignimbrites correspond to C5ACr, C5ACn, C5ADr and C5ADn. Single crystal 40Ar/39Ar-age determinations of the ignimbrites bracketing the polarity changes gave the following ages and uncertainties for the reversals C5AD(t) (13.95±0.07 Ma), C5AC(o) (13.89±0.08 Ma), and C5AC(t) (13.47±0.09 Ma). The newly dated polarity changes fit and refine the Miocene age model proposed in the global polarity time scale.