An OSU Facility supported by the National Science Foundation
Welcome to the Paleo-and-Environmental Magnetism Laboratory in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. The P-Mag Lab is an NSF supported OSU facility dedicated to sediment magnetism and a resource for Pacific NW, national and international scientific communities.
The U-Channel Magnetometer
The P-Mag Lab is built around the unique capabilities of the liquid helium free 2G Enterprises superconducting rock magnetometer (SRM) optimized for u-channel samples. U-channel samples are rigid u-shaped plastic liners (2 x 2 cm cross-section) that completely enclose cored sediments up to 1.5 m in length. This state-of-the-art system provides the capability to rapidly acquire high quality environmental and paleomagnetic data continuously on u-channel samples. The several orders of magnitude increase in data acquisitions allows new archives to be explored and older ones to be more thoroughly examined. Discrete samples can also be rapidly measured with this system.
Our Research
Our approach is to use the high throughput of the u-channel SRM to:
- Reconstruct the space/time patterns of the geomagnetic field.
- Develop and employ geomagnetic change as a stratigraphic dating tool.
- Reconstruct environmental variability through the rock magnetic response to laboratory magnetizations.
Materials for study come from a wide range of sources, including international science programs such as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and the International Continental Drilling Program, PI driven field programs and retrospective research on the large core collection available at the OSU-Marine Geology Repository.
Recent Blog Posts
The P-mag Lab welcomes Julie Velle, ISMER
The P-mag lab is excited to have Julie Velle visit for the next six weeks. We look forward to working with her during her visit and in the future on the Gulf of Alaska IODP Expedition 341 records. Julie Velle is a PhD student in the Oceanography program at...
Proyecto Lago Junin
After arriving in Lima after a 6hr delay in Houston I took a shuttle bus with the rest of the science party up to Tarma, our base for the NSF and ICDP funded Lake Junin Drilling Project. Tarma is at 10,000ft but to get there from Lima we had to negotiate Ticlio pass...
Doug Steen, NAU, visits the P-mag Lab
The OSU P-mag lab welcomes Doug Steen, visiting from Northern Arizona University for the next two weeks. We look forward to working with him during his visit and in the future. Doug is a Master’s student in the Geology program at Northern Arizona University’s School...