500,000-Year Paleomagnetic Record from New Zealand Loess

Abstract
A paleomagnetic record of secular variation has been obtained from a 17.4-m-long core drilled from loess in North Island, New Zealand. Three dated rhyolitic tephra occur in the loess core at depths of 1.5, 3.4,and 13.0 m, with ages of 22,500, ≧42,000, and 370,000 years, respectively. The base of the core is estimated to be 500,000 years old, which makes this the longest continuous loess sequence yet described from the Southern Hemisphere. Two periods of anomalously low inclination in the core are correlated with the Mungo Event (ca. 35,000 years ago) and the Emperor Event (ca. 490,000 years ago); the Blake Event (ca. 115,000 years ago) is not recorded.