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Preliminary paleomagnetic results from the Coyote Creek Outdoor Classroom drill hole, Santa Clara Valley, California

Open-File Report 2003-187
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr03187

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Abstract

Paleomagnetic samples were obtained from cores taken during the drilling of a research well along Coyote Creek in San Jose, California, in order to use the geomagnetic field behavior recorded in those samples to provide age constraints for the sediment encountered. The well reached a depth of 308 meters and material apparently was deposited largely (entirely?) during the Brunhes Normal Polarity Chron, which lasted from 780 ka to the present time. Three episodes of anomalous magnetic inclinations were recorded in parts of the sedimentary sequence; the uppermost two we correlate to the Mono Lake (~30 ka) geomagnetic excursion and 6 cm lower, tentatively to the Laschamp (~45 ka) excursion. The lowermost anomalous interval occurs at 305 m and consists of less than 10 cm of fully reversed inclinations underlain by 1.5 m of normal polarity sediment. This lower anomalous interval may represent either the Big Lost excursion (~565 ka) or the polarity transition at the end of the Matuyama Reversed Polarity Chron (780 ka). The average rates of deposition for the Pleistocene section in this well, based on these two alternatives, are approximately 52 or 37 cm/kyr, respectively.

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Preliminary paleomagnetic results from the Coyote Creek Outdoor Classroom drill hole, Santa Clara Valley, California
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2003-187
DOI 10.3133/ofr03187
Year Published 2003
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Contributing office(s) Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Western Earth Surface Processes
Description ii, 32 p.
Country United States
State California
Other Geospatial Santa Clara Valley
Online Only (Y/N) Y
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