- Article
- Published:
Rock magnetic properties of the late Pleistocene Loess-Paleosol deposits in Haro River area, Attock basin, Pakistan: Is magnetic susceptibility a proxy measure of paleoclimate?
Earth, Planets and Space volume 50, pages 129–139 (1998)
Abstract
Variations of rock-magnetic properties in a late Pleistocene (approx. 18–130 ka) Loess-Paleosol sequence of Haro River area, Attock basin, Pakistan were studied. Isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) acquisition and thermomagnetic analyses of the samples indicate that magnetite and maghemite are the major magnetic minerals in these samples. Saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), and the ratio ARM/SIRM disclose relative enrichment of ultra-fine magnetite/maghemite grains in the paleosols as compared to loess deposits, which suggests that the magnetite/maghemite is of pedogenic origin. Despite this enrichment, the low-field magnetic susceptibility is not always enhanced in paleosols in this sequence. In the Chinese Loess it has been believed that the observed lows and highs of magnetic susceptibility values respectively correspond to loess and paleosol sequences which indicates paleoclimatic change during the formation of the sequences. However, our observations in Pakistan’s Loess-Paleosol sequence demonstrate that, although the ultrafine grained magnetite/maghemite may be produced by the process of pedogenesis, the low-field magnetic susceptibility record does not directly correlate with the alternation of loess and paleosol, and therefore the magnetic susceptibility can not simply be interpreted as a proxy for paleoclimate in the area.
References
Banerjee, S. K., J. W. King, and J. Marvin, A rapid method for magnetic granulometry with application to environmental studies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 8, 333–336, 1981.
Beget, J. E., D. B. Stone, and D. B. Hawkins, Paleoclimatic forcing of magnetic susceptibility variations in Alaskan loess during the late Quaternary, Geology, 18, 40–43, 1990.
Bhathal, R. S. and F. D. Stacey, Frequency dependence of low-field susceptibility of rocks, J. Geophys. Res., 74, 2025–2027, 1969.
Bloemendal, J., J. W. King, F. R. Hall, and S. J. Doh, Rock magnetism of late Neogene and Pleistocene deep-sea sediments: Relationship to sediment source, diagenetic processes, and sediment lithology, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 4361–4375, 1992.
Chlachula et al., Environmental magnetism, CJESS, 34, 679–686, 1997.
Dearing, J., Environmental Magnetic Susceptibility, Using the Bartington MS2 System, 104 pp., Bartington Instruments, Oxford, 1994.
Evans, M. E. and F. Heller, Magnetic enhancement and paleoclimate. Study of a loess/paleosol couplet across the Loess Plateau of China, Geophys. J. Int., 117, 257–264, 1994.
Forster, T. and F. Heller, Loess deposits from the Tajik depression (Central Asia): Magnetic properties and paleoclimate, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 128, 501–512, 1994.
Heller, F. and M. E. Evans, Loess magnetism, Rev. Geophys., 33, 211–240, 1995.
Heller, F. and T. Liu, Magnetostratigraphical dating of loess deposits in China, Nature, 300, 43, 1982.
Heller, F. and T. Liu, Magnetism of Chinese loess deposits, Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc., 77, 125–141, 1984.
Heller, F., X. Liu, T. Liu, and T. Xu, Magnetic susceptibility of loess in China, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 103, 301–310, 1991.
Heller, F., C. D. Shen, J. Beer, X. M. Liu, T. S. Liu, A. Bronger, M. Suter, and G. Bonani, Quantitative estimates of pedogenic ferromagnetic mineral formation in Chinese Loess-Paleosol implications, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 114, 385–390, 1993.
Hunt, P., S. K. Banerjee, J. Han, P. A. Solheid, W. Sun, and T. Liu, Rockmagnetic proxies of climate change in the Loess-Paleosol sequence of the western loess plateau of China, Geophys. J. Int., 123, 232–244, 1995.
Hus, J. J. and J. Han, The contribution in loess magnetism in China to the retrieval of past global changes-some problems, Earth Planet. Inter., 70, 154–168, 1992.
Jackson, M., W. Gruber, J. Marvin, and S. K. Banerjee, Partial anhysteretic remanance and its anisotropy: Applications and grain-size-dependence, Geophys. Res. Lett., 15, 440–443, 1988.
King, J. W. and J. E. T. Channell, Sedimentary magnetism, environmental magnetism, and magnetostratigraphy, Rev. Geophys. Supplement, U.S. National Report to International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics 1987–1990: Contribution in Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, 358–370, 1991.
Kukla, G., F. Heller, X. Liu, T. Xu, T. Liu, and Z. An, Pleistocene climates in China dated by magnetic susceptibility, Geology, 16, 811–814, 1988. Liu, T. S. et al., Loess and the Environment, 251 pp., China Ocean Press, Beijing, 1985.
Liu, X., J. Shaw, T. Liu, F. Heller, and M. Cheng, Rock magnetic properties and palaeoclimate of Chinese loess, J. Geomag. Geoelectr., 45, 117–124, 1993.
Liu, X., T. Rolph, J. Bloemendal, J. Shaw, and T. Liu, Remanance characteristics of different magnetic grain size categories at Xifeng, central Chinese Loess Plateau, Quaternary Res., 42, 162–165, 1994.
Maher, B. A., Glacial/interglacial variations in monsoon intensity from magnetic proxies in the Chinese Loess Plateau, Eos Trans. AGU, Suppl., 77(22), W23, 1996.
Maher, B. A. and R. M. Taylor, Formation of ultra-fine-grained magnetite in soils, Nature, 336, 368–370, 1988.
Maher, B. A. and R. Thompson, Paleoclimatic significance of the mineral magnetic record of the Chinese loess and paleosols, Quaternary Res., 37, 155–170, 1992.
Nizam-Din and M. Yoshida, Particle-size distribution of late Pleistocene Loess-Paleosol deposits in Attock basin, Pakistan: Its paleoclimatic implications, Quaternary Res., 37, 1–11, 1997.
Oches, E. A. and S. K. Banerjee, Glacial-interglacial records from northern hemisphere loess: a comparison of magnetic and non-magnetic proxies for late Pleistocene climate change, Eos Trans. AGU, Suppl., 77(22), W23, 1996.
Rendell, H., Environmental changes during the Pleistocene in the Potwar Plateau and Peshawar Basin, Northern Pakistan, in Paleoclimatic and Paleoenvironmental Changes in Asia during the Last 4 Million Years, edited by D. V. S. Jain, Indian National Science Academy, 291, 58–66, 1988.
Rendell, H., Loess deposition during the Late Pleistocene in Northern Pakistan, Z. Geomorph. N. E., 76, 247–255, 1989.
Robinson, S. G., The late Pleistocene paleoclimatic record of North Atlantic deep-sea sediments revealed by mineral-magnetic measurements, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 42, 22–47, 1986.
Siddiqui, R. H., Mineralogy of late Quaternary Haro River Loess-Paleosol deposits, Attock district, Punjab, Pakistan, Proc. Geosci. Colloq., Geosci. Lab., Geol. Surv. Pakistan, 14, 107–116, 1996.
Verosub, K. L., P. Fine, M. J. Singer, and J. TenPas, Pedogenesis and paleoclimate: Interpretation of the magnetic susceptibility record of Chinese Loess-Paleosol sequences, Geology, 21, 1011–1014, 1993.
Yoshida, M., I. M. Khadim, M. Ali, and M. N. Ahmad, Magnetic Approaches to Geological Sciences, Geoscience Lecture Series, No. 3, 85–95, 1994.
Zafar, M., H. Akram, and M. Yoshida, Major elements composition of Haro River Loess-Paleosol deposits, Attock district, Pakistan, Proc. Geosci. Colloq., Geosci. Lab., Geol. Surv. Pakistan, 14, 117–124, 1996.
Zheng, H., F. Oldfield, L. Yu, J. Shaw, and Z. An, The magnetic properties of particlesized samples from the Luo Chuan loess section: evidence for pedogenesis, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 68, 250–258, 1991.
Zheng, H., T. Rolph, J. Shaw, and Z. An, A detailed paleomagnetic record for the last interglacial period, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 133, 339–351, 1995.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Akram, H., Yoshida, M. & Ahmad, M.N. Rock magnetic properties of the late Pleistocene Loess-Paleosol deposits in Haro River area, Attock basin, Pakistan: Is magnetic susceptibility a proxy measure of paleoclimate?. Earth Planet Sp 50, 129–139 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352094
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352094