Rock magnetics of ODP Site 162-980

A detailed record of variations in the direction and intensity of the geomagnetic field over the past 1.2 Myrs has been obtained from an ~120-m-thick sedimentary section cored at ODP Site 980 on the Feni Drift (North Atlantic). The record has high resolution due to high mean sedimentation rates (11.3 cm/kyr for the Brunhes Chron and 5.5 cm/kyr for the Matuyama Chron), paleomagnetic measurements every 1 cm along u-channel samples, and high quality isotopic age control. The Iceland Basin Event is manifest by virtual geomagnetic poles crossing the equator at ~190 ka. The base of the recovered section lies immediately below the Cobb Mountain Subchronozone that occurs within marine isotope stage 35. Normalized remanence data can be correlated to paleointensity records from ODP Sites 983 and 984 (~700 km to the NW from Site 980) and with lower resolution paleointensity data from the Pacific Ocean. Differences between the Site 980 paleointensity record and the Pacific records are attributed to variable sedimentation rates, variable quality age control, and inadequacies in the normalization procedure used to derive the paleointensity proxies.