MAGNETIC ANALYSIS OF A LAKE TANGANYIKA SEDIMENT CORE

A long-range paleomagnetic data set from sediment core T97-52V from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa is used in this study to construct paleosecular variation age models. Inclination records closely correlate to two other regional paleomagnetic records, and show nearly linear age-depth relationships on ~25 ka and ~80 ka time frames. Paleosecular variation age models confirm the accuracy of an established robust radiocarbon age model for the core. Environmental magnetic data obtained from the core prove unsuitable for high-resolution paleolimnological and paleoclimatological analyses of Lake Tanganyika and equatorial Africa due to the effects of reduction diagenesis throughout much of the core. But coarse evidence for stadial-interstadial climatic transitions appears in the environmental magnetic proxies and implies high-latitude processes have influenced equatorial interior African climates since early marine oxygen isotope stage four. The apparent signature of stadial-interstadial climatic transitions further validates radiocarbon and paleosecular variation age models for core T97-52V.