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
Another Fun Trip to the PNW Paleomag Lab at Western Washington University
Katharine, Rob, and Brendan took turns over the last 2 weeks helping Ben collect data for his Masters Thesis at the Pacific Northwest Paleomagnetism Laboratory at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Ben is studying sediment from the Northern North...
Two P-mag Lab Graduates!
Katharine (MS) and Brendan (PhD) officially received their degrees at Saturday's Oregon State Commencement. But they aren't running away yet! Katherine will stick around to manage the P-mag Lab and make sure it continues to run smoothly and Brendan will start a new...
Congratulations to Katharine on defending her MS thesis!
Katharine Solada has successfully defended her MS Thesis, titled "Constraining resurgent uplift through lake sediment paleomagnetism on resurgent dome Samosir Island in Toba Caldera, Indonesia!" Great job Katharine!