Geomagnetic, cosmogenic and climatic changes across the last geomagnetic reversal from Equatorial Indian Ocean sediments

- Synchronism of beryllium, paleointensity and directional signals during the reversal.
- 10Be peak during the transition but not during the precursor.
- Ages of precursor and transition reconcile radiometric and astrochronological ages.
- Australasian microtektites indicate bioturbation over 20 cm at most.

High-resolution records of beryllium (10Be) production and relative paleointensity have been obtained across the Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) reversal from the equatorial Indian Ocean (Maldives area). Both magnetic and geochemical analyses were performed from the same discrete samples to avoid any artificial depth offset. The authigenic 10Be concentrations were normalized with respect to 9Be in order to correct for potential environmental effects, while the relative paleointensity was derived from the remanent magnetization intensity after accounting for changes in magnetic concentration within the sediment. The relative paleointensity and the 10Be/9Be records are both characterized by large deviations, which culminate in the middle of the reversal. In contrast to most previous studies, and despite relative high deposition rate (4.7 cm/ka), we observed a perfect synchronism between the 10Be/9Be peak, the lowest value of relative paleointensity and the switch in direction, which indicates that bioturbation and post-depositional processes did not affect the magnetic record. This leaves no ambiguity for the stratigraphic position of the reversal located within Marine Isotopic Stage 19 as revealed by the planktonic δ18O record from the same core. The magnetic data depict a two-phase process with a precursory event preceding the rapid polarity switch, while only the second phase is present in the 10Be record, similarly to other low latitude records from the Indonesian area. Using an orbitally-tuned age model, we obtain an age of 772ka±5ka for the middle of the transition, while the precursory event occurred almost 20 ka before. We believe that the bimodal distribution emerging from the compilations of the ages of the M-B reversal results from the succession of these two events. Microtektites from the Australasian impact were found at 0.6 m below the transition (790ka±5ka B.P.) and confirm that this large event occurred 12 ka prior to the polarity transition. The distribution of tektite abundance was used to deconvolve the 10Be/9Be signal. The results confirm that the beryllium changes are concentrated during the transitional period, thus likely in presence of a multipolar geomagnetic field (or in the vicinity of a geomagnetic pole) that favored the penetration of cosmic rays and consequently increased the 10Be production. The absence of 10Be during the precursor indicates that the present site and the Indonesian ones were far away from a geomagnetic pole and that interlatitudinal atmospheric mixing was limited. The geomagnetic pole positions above the Indonesian sites during the precursor would thus be incompatible with the corresponding inclined dipolar field during this period, and suggest the dominance of low-degree harmonics.