The Réunion Subchronozone at ODP Site 981 (Feni Drift, North Atlantic)

At Ocean Drilling Program Site 981, the Réunion Subchron is recorded from the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 81/82 boundary to MIS 79 as a single normal polarity zone spanning the 2.115–2.153-Ma interval. According to the age model, produced by matching the Site 981 δ18O record to an orbitally-tuned reference record, the duration of the Réunion Subchron (38 kyr) is almost four times that assumed in current geomagnetic polarity timescales. High interval sedimentation rates (18 cm/kyr) during MIS 81 at Site 981 have resulted in an unusually detailed record of the Subchron. Virtual geomagnetic poles during the onset and demise of the Réunion Subchron trace a series of mainly anticlockwise loops over eastern Asia.