Abstract

A device used for paleomagnetic sampling has been improved which allows sampling friable, poorly to moderate lithified sedimentary and volcanic materials. The new device attaches to a portable gasoline drill and employs two steel cutting disks with a 2 cm separation, which cuts two parallel slots in the material being sampled. A second set of cuts orthogonal to the first set produces a square pedestal over which a plastic sample box can be placed and oriented to extract a cubic sample; this procedure permits using the same orientation parameters as for conventionally drilled cylindrical samples. The method allows sampling at localities where conventional drilling fails in weak materials.

To test the method, sedimentary sandstones of the Amagá Formation (Eocene–Miocene) in the NW portion of the Central Colombian Andes were sampled. The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) was measured on samples using the new method and compared with results from conventionally drilled cores at the same sites. Results show better AMS within-site precision for box samples compared with the drilled cores. This device improves on previous battery-powered samplers used for sampling by the double-slot procedure. Also the new device can be used with the same gasoline-powered motor for standard core drilling.