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Geomagnetic excursions, brief deviations in geomagnetic field behaviour from that expected during 'normal' secular variation, remain some of the most enigmatic features of geomagnetic field behaviour. This thesis presents high-resolution records of geomagnetic excursions recorded at the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge in the Western North Atlantic. The highest resolution record yet of the Blake geomagnetic excursion (~125 ka) is measured in three cores from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1062 (ODP Leg 172). These cores have sufficiently high sedimentation rates (>10 cm ka-1) to allow detailed reconstruction of the field behaviour at these sites during the excursions. Previous reconstructions of geomagnetic field behaviour during excursions from marine cores have been limited by low-resolution age models. This thesis discusses a new approach, whereby measurements of excess 230Th (230Thxs) are used to constrain relative variations in sedimentation rate. Modifications are suggested to the methods previously used to calculate the concentration of 230Thxs and a new MATLAB® program is developed and described that allows rapid and flexible calculation of 230Thxs. Using this new approach, the duration (6.5±1.3 kyr) and age (129-122 ka) of the Blake excursion are accurately constrained. A palaeomagnetic study is also conducted on two ODP Sites, 1061 and 1062 on the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge to obtain a high-resolution record of the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion (~41 ka). The Blake excursion is found to be of 'long' duration (6.5±1.3 kyr) whilst the Laschamp excursion is relatively short (<400 years) showing that excursions do not have a characteristic duration, linked to the conductivity of the inner core, but instead occupy a continuous range of durations. The records of both the Blake excursion and the Laschamp excursion from the Blake-Bahama Ridge sites also show rapid transitions to excursional geomagnetic pole positions (less than 500 years), much faster than often quoted for full geomagnetic reversals. Based on current estimates for reversal durations, this would imply that excursions and reversals are controlled by different processes.

Alternative detection technologies are crucial to meeting demand for neutron detectors, for the current production of He-3, which has been the classical neutron choice, is insufficient. Organic scintillators are a strong candidate as a He-3 alternative due to their high efficiency, fast timing properties, and capabilities for separately identifying gamma-rays and neutrons through pulse shape discrimination (PSD). However, the use of organic scintillators in environments with numerous gamma rays can be limited because overlapping gamma-ray events can be misclassified as neutron events during PSD. To solve this problem, a new, hybridized double-pulse cleaning technique, consisting of three separate cleaning algorithms, was developed. The technique removes gamma-ray double pulses while preserving as many neutron pulses as possible. This technique was applied to separate experiments of Cf-252 and a gamma-ray source when measuring at a 100-kHz count rate and a field of 1000 incident gamma rays per incident neutron. It was found that stilbene scintillators were capable of intrinsic neutron efficiencies between 15-19% when measuring bare Cf-252 and 13-17% when exposed to the gamma-ray field. Misclassification rates ranged from 10-6-10-5, a factor-of-5 better than both the EJ-309 liquid and BB3-5 plastic. Next, plutonium experiments were performed with stilbene to determine which cleaning algorithm was best for each sample. A clear correlation was found that related the correct method of cleaning to the measured gamma ray-to-neutron ratio. When the measured gamma ray-to-neutron ratio is 10 or below, the template cleaning algorithm is preferred, while the fractional and hybrid cleaning algorithms are preferred when the gamma ray-to-neutron ratio is 100 or greater. Discriminating neutron sources such as Cf-252 or AmLi from SNM samples such as plutonium is a top priority in nonproliferation. We demonstrate that time-correlated experiments, utilizing both PSD-capable plastic and stilbene scintillators, can perform this discrimination. Comparing the single and correlated neutron from each source, measurement systems based on stilbene and PSD-capable plastic scintillators discriminated plutonium metal and oxide samples from a Cf-252 spontaneous fission source.