LATEST PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE GEOMAGNETIC PALEOINTENSITY ON HAWAII

Geomagnetic paleointensity determinations from radiocarbon-dated lava flows on the island of Hawaii provide an estimate of broad trends in p aleointensity for Holocene time and offer a glimpse of intensity varia tions near the end of the last glacial period. When the data from Hawa ii are compared with others worldwide, the intensity of the geomagneti c field seems to have been reduced from the Holocene average by about 35 percent between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago. A long-term reduction of this magnitude is compatible with reported increases in the product ion rate of cosmogenic nuclides during the same interval.