Recognizing Geomagnetic Storms in Marine Magnetometer Data: Toward Improved Archaeological Resource Identification Practices

Summary

Strong magnetic field perturbations resulting from Earth-directed solar events can adversely affect marine archaeological survey. The immediate onset of geomagnetic storms and fast compression of the magnetopause create short duration, high amplitude spikes in Earth’s magnetic field that appear similar to signatures of archaeological anomalies. Aggressive processing, analysis, and comparison of single instrument survey and observatory datasets collected during geomagnetic storms prevented isolation and removal of the onset signature. Of 34 storms analyzed, 100 percent possessed onset signatures that were considered to be misleading, resulting in possible aliasing of temporal variation (the onset signature) for spatial variation (archaeological anomalies). Based on a 95% confidence level, it is estimated that 89.7 to 100 percent of geomagnetic storms will generate signatures that may be misinterpreted as archaeological sites. Recommendations are made for methods that may adequately account for geomagnetic storms, allowing for improved analytical interpretation and thus improved management of archaeological resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 63