A deformed Pliocene-Quaternary alluvial and red paleosol succession in the Eastern Betics: Paleomagnetic,rock-magnetic and sedimentological pilot study

Summary An integrated pilot paleomagnetic and sedimentological study has been conducted in the Neogene-Quaternary infilling materials of the Bajo Segura Basin (Eastern Betics, SE Spain). The studied sediments belong to the youngest (late Pliocene-Quaternary) lithostratigraphic unit of the basin (P-Q unit). The statistical analysis of tectonic striations and stylolitic dissolutions on the conglomerate limestone clasts indicates a NNW-SSE maximum compression direction. This is in accordance with the principal susceptibility axes, determined from the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements (AMS) of the interbedded siltstones where the Kmax axis group in a subhorizontal N 080° E direction.A total of 45 core samples have been collected from 16 stratigraphic siltstone levels encompassing the described section at Crevillente with the aim to establish a magnetochronology. Upwards in the section the NRM intensity and bulk susceptibility vary from 10^–2 to 10^–3 A/m and from 1550 to 100 × 10^–6 SI, respectively. The mean characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) after bedding correction (Dec/Inc = 10°/60°, ₉₅ = 8.7°, k = 15.9) is deviated slightly towards the E from the reference N direction, and could reflect a deflection related to the observed magnetic fabric although no clear correlation exists with AMS parameters. The derived magnetostratigraphy reveals only one reversal boundary within the upper third of the section, delimiting an upper reversal magnetozone which has been tentatively correlated with the Olduwai subchron close to the Plio-Pleistocene boundary.Pilot and preliminary rock-magnetic experiments and standard X-ray difraction (XRD) analysis have been performed on typical samples in order to establish the carriers of magnetization and characterize the sedimentological and magnetic-acquisition processes in these sediments. Magnetic carriers seem to be dominated by magnetite with a relative grain size within the PSD state (pseudo single-domain) threshold, but closer to the MD (multi domain) threshold, which favours the detrital origin for the magnetite.