Reversed polarity characteristic magnetizations in the Albian Contessa Section, Umbrian Apennines, Italy: Implications for the existence of a Mid‐Cretaceous mixed polarity interval

Paleomagnetic and paleontologic data from the Valle della Contessa (Umbrian Apennines, Italy) span a 14 m.y. gap in previous magnetostratigraphic sections and reveal several intervals of reversed characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) in limestones and marls of the Albian Marne a Fucoidi. Rock magnetic data indicate that the reversed ChRM is carried by hematite having high unblocking temperatures (∼ 625–690° C). Hematite with these...