Absolute paleointensity determinations by using of conventional double-heating and multispecimen approaches on a Pliocene lava flow sequence from the Lesser Caucasus

Abstract We report 28 successful Thellier type absolute geomagnetic paleointensity determinations from a Pleistocene lava sequence composed of 39 successive flows in the Djavakheti Highland (Lesser Caucasus, Georgia). Additionally, multispecimen technique provided the estimation of geomagnetic field strength for 12 independent cooling units. Paleointensity studies were performed using both Thellier type double heating and multispecimen techniques. Samples selection was mainly based on uni-vectorial remanent magnetization, thermal stability and domain size of the samples. Flow-mean Thellier paleointensity values range from 16.3 ± 5.2 to 71.0 ± 0.3 μT, while intensities obtained using multispecimen approach vary from17.2 ± 2.3 to 69.3 ± 7.9 μT. One of the flows is located near a possible discontinuity in the sequence and yields a rather low Thellier absolute intensity (16.3 ± 5.2) suggesting a transitional regime and the onset of the Matuyama-Olduvai polarity transition, which does not appear on the directional record. Multispecimen paleointensities from the same flow, however, yield higher, close to present day values which makes untenable the hypothesis of occurrence of transitional field. Thus the whole sequence was emplaced in a short time between the Olduvai chron and 1.73 ± 0.03 Ma, as suggested by available radiometric and paleomagnetic data ( Caccavari et al., 2014 ).