SUMMARY A combined palaeodirectional and palaeointensity study of a representative collection of plutonic rocks from the Antarctic Peninsula batholith from the western part of the Antarctic Peninsula, near the Ukrainian Antarctic base 'Academik Vernadsky' were carried out. Petrographically, the collection includes gabbros, diorites and quartz diorites, tonalities, granodiorites and granites. The ages of igneous complex emplacement vary from 50 to 117 Ma with most of the rocks belonging to the Cretaceous Normal Superchron. The characteristic remanent magnetizations were isolated by stepwise thermal demagnetization over the temperature interval 440–590°C and their intensities amount to 95 per cent of the NRM. The geographic positions of palaeopoles do not contradict the ‘key poles’ of the Antarctic Peninsula between 90 and 60 Ma. A significant part of the collection was subjected to Coe‐modified Thellier palaeointensity experiments with the pTRM checks, which yielded seven reliable palaeointensity determinations for seven different locations. The obtained VDMs are relatively low for all sites, being on average about half of the present day VDM. The analysis of available palaeointensity data for the Cretaceous, Miocene and Middle Jurassic indicates the existence of strong correlations between the mean VDM and VDM scatter versus the rate of reversals. However, due to the shortage of data, the correlations are not significant at the 5 per cent significance level.

Variations of rock magnetic parameters in loess-palaeosol sequences, related to climatic and environmental conditions during their formation, are a powerful tool for palaeoclimate reconstruction. Combined enviromagnetic study of loess deposits in Ukraine and its assessment for the palaeoreconstruction purposes are carried out in the framework of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine project 2020.02/0406 ‘Magnetic proxies of palaeoclimatic changes in the loess-palaeosol sequences of Ukraine’. Environmental/climatic reconstructions of the past are fulfilled using a significant number of palaeoindicators: morphology and lithological properties of palaeosols and loesses, their pollen assemblages and a wide range of magnetic characteristics. In this paper, we present a multi-proxy approach to palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and introduce preliminary results obtained from magnetic susceptibility of loess-palaeosol sequences in the northern (at Vyazivok), central (Stari Kaydaky) and southern (Roksolany) parts of the Ukrainian loess belt. The amplitudes of palaeoclimate change established using magnetic proxies are well correlated with the lithological, palaeopedological and palynological patterns of the sites, and with the global oxygen-isotope scale (MIS). Ongoing studies of the Stari Kaydaky section confirm the correlation of the Upper Zavadivka (S3) soil unit and Lower Zavadivka (S4) soil unit with MIS 9 and MIS 11, respectively (this was proved earlier at the Vyazivok and Roksolany sites). The underlying Lubny (S5) pedocomplex likely corresponds to MIS 13, and the Martonosha (S6) pedocomplex to MIS 15. Palaeomagnetic investigations at Stari Kaydaky have not so far reached the Lower Shyrokyne unit, in which the Matuyama—Brunhes boundary has been detected at Roksolany and Vyazivok. The Upper Shyrokyne (S7S1) palaeosol unit has normal polarity and is preliminarily correlated with MIS 17.

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Combined rock magnetic and palaeomagnetic studies of loess-soil sections — Lower Paleolithic sites in the valley of the Southern Bug (Medzhybizh, Holovchintsi) — have been performed for the first time in order to determine the suitability of these objects for palaeomagnetic study and the establishment of magnetostratigraphic markers. Investigated sections by rock magnetic characteristics are closest to the sections of the Volynian Upland, and refer to the intermediate «Chinese» type of formation of magnetic properties, with an admixture of the «Alaskan» mechanism. These sections are characterized by a low concentration of ferrimagnetic material, the destruction of the primary sedimentary magnetic texture, which makes them unsuitable for qualitative magnetostratigraphic studies. According to the data of magnetic-mineralogical analysis, the samples are subdivided into three groups: the first group includes samples with new formation at 300 °C, which is associated with iron hydroxides or the presence of organic matter; in the second group, the thermomagnetic curves are not informative, which makes it difficult to determine the minerals-carriers; in some samples, the magnetization carrier is magnetite (with defects or finely dispersed). A zone of normal polarity, probably the Brunhes chron, has been reliably determined in the upper part (G-S7S1 soil) of the Holovchyntsi section. In the lower part of the M-S4 soil unit (MIS 11) at Medzhybizh, the Unnamed geomagnetic event at 430 ky has been detected. The paleomagnetic veracity of the remaining investigated layers is questioned. The analogies for the archaeological assemblages from the lower layers of Medzhybizh-A and Holovchintsi-1 are seen in archaic industries of mode 1, which in southeastern Europe are dated back from 800 ky and older. However, reliable data on the Matuyama—Brunhes boundary and, correspondingly, data on the >780 ky age of any layers with artifacts in the Medzhybizh and Holovchintsi sections were not obtained by the palaeomagnetic studies.

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