Recent results presented at the SEDI Conference in Santa Fe, NM this August raised important new questions about the behavior of the geomagnetic field during polarity reversals. Studies of the Matuyama-Brunhes and upper Olduvai transitions suggest that there may exist a geographical control over the reversal process as evidence by VGP paths which fall along preferred tracks over the Americas or eastern Asia. In order to test the existence of a geographical control over the reversal process and its persistence through time it is necessary to examine records of successive reversals from multiple sites. A detailed paleomagnetic study of the polarity transitions bounding the Thvera, Sidufjall and Nunivak subchrons as recorded in the Suva Marl (Fiju) will be carried out. These records should help determine if the variability in Plio- Pleistocene transitional fields results from different manifestations of a geographically constrained reversal mechanism.
