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 at AGU 2017
The OSU P-mag lab will be at AGU in New Orleans this year, with five presentations in five different sessions (and three focus groups!). Our presentations range from addressing magnetostratigraphic, geomagnetic, paleoceanographic, volcanic, radiocarbon, and...
The Process
Brendan arrived around mid-afternoon in academic fashion, behind the wheel of a Subaru Forrester. We circled through Corvallis, picking up Nick and JD, then started down Rt. 20 towards Newport, OR. This was not the standard orientation. Nick and I began graduate...
Setting sail on the Oregon Margin
Hello everyone! My name is Nick Lavoie, and I just started as a graduate student here in the P-Mag Lab at OSU. After an exciting week of getting settled into my apartment, I joined graduate students, REU students, our P.I., and P-Mag alumni alike as we set sail on...