Description: Investigated sediment cores from the southeastern Black Sea provide a high-resolution record from mid latitudes of the Laschamp geomagnetic polarity excursion. Age constraints are provided by 16 AMS 14C ages, identification of the Campanian Ignimbrite tephra (39.28±0.11 ka), and by detailed tuning of sedimentologic parameters of the Black Sea sediments to the oxygen isotope record from the Greenland NGRIP ice core. According to the derived age model, virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) positions during the Laschamp excursion persisted in Antarctica for an estimated 440 yr, making the Laschamp excursion a short-lived event with fully reversed polarity directions. The reversed phase, centred at 41.0 ka, is associated with a significant field intensity recovery to 20% of the preceding strong field maximum at ~50 ka. Recorded field reversals of the Laschamp excursion, lasting only an estimated ~250 yr, are characterized by low relative paleointensities (5% relative to 50 ka). The central, fully reversed phase of the Laschamp excursion is bracketed by VGP excursions to the Sargasso Sea (~ 41.9 ka) and to the Labrador Sea (~ 39.6 ka). Paleomagnetic results from the Black Sea are in excellent agreement with VGP data from the French type locality which facilitates the chronological ordering of the non-superposed lavas that crop out at Laschamp-Olby. In addition, VGPs between 34 and 35 ka reach low northerly to equatorial latitudes during a clockwise loop, inferred to be the Mono lake excursion.

Description: The bulk magnetic mineral record from Lake Ohrid, spanning the past 637 kyr, reflects large-scale shifts in hydrological conditions, and, superimposed, a strong signal of environmental conditions on glacial–interglacial and millennial timescales. A shift in the formation of early diagenetic ferrimagnetic iron sulfides to siderites is observed around 320 ka. This change is probably associated with variable availability of sulfide in the pore water. We propose that sulfate concentrations were significantly higher before ~320 ka, due to either a higher sulfate flux or lower dilution of lake sulfate due to a smaller water volume. Diagenetic iron minerals appear more abundant during glacials, which are generally characterized by higher Fe/Ca ratios in the sediments. While in the lower part of the core the ferrimagnetic sulfide signal overprints the primary detrital magnetic signal, the upper part of the core is dominated by variable proportions of high- to low-coercivity iron oxides. Glacial sediments are characterized by high concentration of high-coercivity magnetic minerals (hematite, goethite), which relate to enhanced erosion of soils that had formed during preceding interglacials. Superimposed on the glacial–interglacial behavior are millennial-scale oscillations in the magnetic mineral composition that parallel variations in summer insolation. Like the processes on glacial–interglacial timescales, low summer insolation and a retreat in vegetation resulted in enhanced erosion of soil material. Our study highlights that rock-magnetic studies, in concert with geochemical and sedimentological investigations, provide a multi-level contribution to environmental reconstructions, since the magnetic properties can mirror both environmental conditions on land and intra-lake processes.

Description: This data publication provides data on redeposition experiments with mud collected during paleomagnetic sampling of various cores from the Arkhangelsky Ridge, SE Black Sea, recovered during marine expedition M72/5 of German research vessel RV METEOR in 2007 and expedition MSM33 of German research vessel RV Maria S. Merian in 2013. The collected silici-clastic mud mostly originates from glacial sediments deposited during marine isotope stages (MIS) 2 to 4, and 6. The material (bulk/mixed sample) originates from 208m to 847m water depth, 41° 28.66'N to 42° 13.57'N in latitude, and 36° 29.53'E to 37° 11.68'E in longitude. Experiments were performed in order to check the (non-) linearity of the detrital remanent magnetization (DRM) of Black Sea sediments acquired in different magnetic fields.

Description: This data table contains rock-magnetic parameters and paleomagnetic data of a 1.2 Ma sediment core composite ICDP 5045-1 from Lake Ohrid. Measurements have been conducted on discrete cube samples using a cryogenic magnetometer.