Identification of magnetic minerals in surface sediments of Miyun Lake, Beijing

Understanding the magnetic properties of natural sediments, which include magnetic concentration, composition and grain size, is fundamental in paleomagnetic and paleoenvironmental studies. Systematic magnetic measurements and non-magnetic methods (e.g., transmission electron microscopy, TEM) provide detailed information of magnetic minerals. In this paper, we established a high efficient magnetic extraction method to separate magnetic minerals from surface sediments of Miyun lake in Beijing. We analyzed the bulk samples, magnetic extracts and residues. Saturation magnetization (M-s), volume magnetic susceptibility (kappa) and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) of the magnetic extracts is about 85%, 75% and 70% of the bulk samples, respectively. Multiple-parameter rock magnetic measurements indicated that the major magnetic minerals in sediments are multi-domain (MD) and single domain (SD) magnetite. TEM analyses revealed detrital MD titano-magnetite, biogenic SD magnetite (magnetofossils) and authigenic superparamagnetic (SP) magnetite. We propose that the combination of rock magnetism and TEM observations is useful to accurately identify the magnetic minerals in sediments.