Preliminary Palaeomagnetic Characterisation of Basalts from Northeast Lebanon

A preliminary palaeomagnetic results from basalt outcrops in northeast Lebanon is reported. The remanence carrier of the characteristic magnetisation is magnetite. Both variations of susceptibility and anisotropy directional data show that the measured directions of thermoremanent magnetisation (TRM) are representative of the ambient field at the time of cooling of these basalts through their blocking temperature. The natural remanent magnetism (NRM) and thermal and alternating field (AF) demagnetisation experiments indicate two magnetic components: 1) Normal polarity component and 2) Transitional/intermediate polarity component that imply two basaltic emplacements. The normal component is correlated to the long normal polarity subchron C5n.2n while the transitional / intermediate component is possibly related to a cryptochron within C5n.2n.