A comparison of relative paleointensity records of the Matuyama Chron for the period 0.75–1.25 Ma

A comparison of 15 records of relative geomagnetic paleointensity, spanning the time interval 0.75–1.25 Ma, has been performed after synchronizing the records at the paleointensity minima corresponding to geomagnetic reversals. Filtering and smoothing of the records indicated that, after synchronization, paleointensity features with wavelengths larger than about 20 ky can be matched from one record to another, although age offsets can still be observed in several records. Further synchronization of the records, using intensity minima, permitted construction of a composite stack of these records. This stack provides useful information about the long-term evolution of the geomagnetic field intensity over this period of time, and confirms the existence of a rapid recovery of the field intensity after each reversal. Analysis of the standard deviation and jackknife calculation suggest that improvement in the stack accuracy and resolution could still be achieved with better-constrained age models.