Records of geomagnetic secular variation since 1200 AD and the potential for chronological control of lake sediments in northern Alberta

We assess whether absolutely aged declination changes can be used to date recent, massive lake sediments at the sub-century scale. Three issues limiting such studies are addressed: recovery of undisturbed recent lake sediments, assessment of the reliability of the geomagnetic record, and the comparison of lake-sediment records with historic records. A 793-year long geomagnetic chronology was obtained from the annually laminated sediment of …