Paleomagnetism and paleoclimate change in the South China Sea since the late Pleistocene

Signal processing techniques of cross-correlation, power spectral analysis and cross-power spectral analysis are used to determine the relationships between paleomagnetic properties and the oxygen isotope record of the South China Sea during the late Pleistocene. On the basis of correlation tests between the δ¹⁸O time series of cores V3 and A15 with the paleomagnetic properties of core SCS01, five events of susceptibility and intensity of natural remanent magnetization are identified as glacial events corresponding to δ¹⁸O positive events. The magnetic properties of the sediments which are independent of the geomagnetic field are sensitive climatic indicators which have frequencies corresponding to the Milankovitch orbital parameters.