Carlos Alberto Vásquez

Rock magnetism in two loess–paleosol sequences in Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract This work presents new rock magnetic results along two loess–paleosol profiles in nearby locations in Argentina. The main objective of this study is to compare the magnetic signals and mineral content of two profiles and determine if the climate during Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) and MIS 3 were similar to the present one. The two profiles are located in two different geomorphological settings, with effects on the water saturation characteristics and seasonality. Selected samples taken at these profiles were analyzed using laboratory procedures and environmental magnetism parameters to determine the climatic influence during the Late Pleistocene. Despite their proximity there are several differences between both profiles, such as their depth and geomorphological positions among others. The results of these analyses led to the following conclusions: climate conditions during MIS 5 were very similar to those of the present conditions. The hypothesis for this area suggests a slight increase in the magnetic signal associated with the generation of small amounts of magnetite and preservation of detrital magnetite and titano-magnetite. The results in this paper show a slight gain in the buried soils of Córdoba that would confirm the hypothesis.

Anhysteretic remanent magnetization: model of grain size distribution of spherical magnetite grains

A phenomenological model based on a linear relationship between the magnetic coercivity field and the reciprocal of the grain diameter is applied to explain the anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) imparted to artificial samples with different concentrations of a very well characterized magnetite powder. By analyses of scanning electron microscopy images, the spherically shaped single domain synthetic magnetite is found to follow a lognormal grain size distribution with ~86 nm of mean diameter. The proposed model, fitted to ARM measurements up to a peak alternating field of 100 mT, yields a very good agreement. The coercivity behaviour predicted by micromagnetism theory disagrees with the experimental results of this work. A likely explanation for the discrepancy is that the magnetite particles, which consist of a mixture of grains in coherent rotation and curling modes, produce similar observations as domain processes.

Rock magnetic study of fluvial Holocene soil from Buenos Aires province (Argentina)

The magnetic characteristics of soils are widely used in environmental and paleoclimatic investigations for studying the several factors involved in the soil formation process. We propose here a new analytical tool that takes into account the variations in magnetic properties correlated with grain sizes and concentrations of ferrimagnetic minerals. This analytical tool is based on a mathematical model of well-established magnetic properties in samples of known grain sizes and was used in this study to determine changes in the grain size and concentration of ferrimagnetic minerals along a terminal Pleistocene/Holocene fluvial section located in the northeast of Buenos Aires province. These variations may reflect a humid period prevailing in the area and may be associated with climate changes that occurred in the Chaco-Pampean region during the Middle Holocene.