Speleomagnetism

Speleomagnetism is the magnetic study of cave deposits, including speleothems. The main research by TAAL into speleomagentism has been the palaeomagnetic analysis and dating of cave sediments and speleothems from South African and Australian fossil and archaeological bearing palaeokarst and the direct dating of geomagnetic field reversals, events and excursions in speleothems using uranium-lead dating.

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Palaeokarst preserved in the Haasgat (Rabbit Hole) lime mine in South Africa. Palaeomagnetic analysis indicates that these deposits are older than 1.95 Ma based on the identification of the end of the Olduvai SubChron at the top of the cave sequence. Andy Herries stands in the main fossil bearing area of Tetley’s Hall (Adams, 2012; Herries et al., 2014)