Gyro‐remanent magnetization (GRM) is a frequently occurring yet unwanted remanence contamination for certain samples during alternating field (AF) demagnetization of the natural remanent magnetization. The origin and detailed properties of GRM have not yet been fully understood. In this study, systematic rock magnetic analyses were conducted on marine greigite‐bearing samples of Hole U1433A drilled by the IODP Expedition 349 from the South China Sea. Results show that GRM is mostly acquired above ~55 mT AF demagnetization and can be effectively removed by heating to ~400°C during thermal demagnetization but a secondary tail could remain until ~585°C. In addition, no apparent GRM was observed during the AF demagnetization for the 400°C thermally treated samples. These results strongly suggest that GRM is dominantly carried by single domain (SD) greigite but with minor contributions from SD magnetite. Thus, thermal treatment alone or the hybrid demagnetization (i.e., thermal demagnetization at ~400°C first then systematical AF demagnetization) can efficiently avoid the GRM acquisition and be beneficial for relative paleointensity estimation for greigite‐bearing samples. Besides, GRM carried by greigite has a low thermal stability. Our results also show AF demagnetization spectra of anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) could be strongly distorted by GRM effects due to both have a preference of SD particles. Thus, the median destructive field of ARM is improper to be used as a coercivity proxy for greigite‐bearing samples. Instead, the biplot analysis of AF demagnetization of natural remanent magnetization and ARM can be used to evaluate the relative content of greigite.
Fine‐grained, Ti‐poor titanomagnetite in the ~12.7 Ma Tiva Canyon (TC) Tuff systematically increases in grain size from superparamagnetic (SP) at the flow base to single domain (SD) at a few meters height. This allows us to examine the role of grain‐size variation on paleointensity, within the transition from SP to stable SD. We present magnetic properties from two previously unreported sections of the TC Tuff, as well as Thellier‐type paleointensity estimates from the lowermost ~7.0 m of the flow. Magnetic hysteresis, frequency‐dependent susceptibility, and thermomagnetic data show that sample grain‐size distribution is dominated by SP in the lower ~3.6 m, transitioning upwards to mostly stable SD. Paleointensity results are closely tied to stratigraphic height and to magnetic properties linked to domain state. SD samples have consistent absolute paleointensity values of 28.5 ± 1.94 μT (VADM of 51.3 ZAm2) and behaved ideally during paleointensity experiments. The samples including a significant SP fraction have consistently higher paleointensities and less ideal behavior but would likely pass many traditional quality‐control tests. We interpret the SD remanence to be a primary thermal remanent magnetization but discuss the possibility of a partial thermal‐chemical remanent magnetization if microcrystal growth continued at T < Tcand/or the section is affected by post‐emplacement vapor‐phase alteration. The link between paleointensity and domain state is stronger than correlations with water content or other evidence of alteration and suggests that the presence of a significant SP population may adversely impact paleointensity results, even in the presence of a stable SD fraction.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1642268
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10456078
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 1525-2027
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 5818-5830
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)SUMMARY Upon cooling, most rocks acquire a thermoremanent magnetization (TRM); the cooling rate at which this happens not only affects palaeointensity estimates, but also their unblocking temperatures in stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments, which is important, for example, to estimate volcanic emplacement temperatures. Traditional single-domain (SD) theory of magnetic remanence relates relaxation times to blocking temperatures— the blocking temperature is the temperature at which the relaxation time becomes shorter than the experimental timescale—and therefore strictly only applies to remanence acquisition mechanisms at constant temperatures (i.e. viscous remanent magnetizations, VRMs). A theoretical framework to relate (constant) blocking temperatures to (time-varying) cooling rates exists, but this theory has very limited experimental verification—partly due to the difficulty of accurately knowing the cooling rates of geological materials. Here we present an experimental test of this ‘cooling rate effect on blocking temperatures’ through a series of demagnetization experiments of laboratory-induced TRMs with controlled cooling rates. The tested cooling rates span about 1 order of magnitude and are made possible through (1) extremely accurate demagnetization experiments using a low-temperature magnetic properties measurement system (MPMS) and (2) the use of a ‘1-step-only’ stepwise thermal demagnetization protocol where the relaxation process is measured over time. In this way the relaxation time corresponding to the blocking temperature is measured, which can be done to much higher accuracy than measuring the blocking temperature directly as done in traditional stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments. Our experiments confirm that the cooling rate relationship holds to high accuracy for ideal magnetic recorders, as shown for a synthetic weakly interacting SD magnetoferritin sample. A SD-dominated low-Ti titanomagnetite Tiva Canyon Tuff sample, however, showed that natural samples are unlikely to be sufficiently ‘ideal’ to meet the theoretical predictions to high accuracy—the experimental data agrees only approximately with the theoretical predictions, which may potentially affect blocking temperature estimates in stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments. Moreover, we find a strongly enhanced cooling rate effect on palaeointensities for even marginally non-ideal samples (up to 43 per cent increase in pTRM for a halving of the cooling rate).more » « less
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Abstract Absolute paleointensity (API) of the geomagnetic field can be estimated from volcanic rocks by comparing the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) to a laboratory‐induced thermoremanent magnetization (Lab‐TRM). Plots of NRM unblocking versus Lab‐TRM blocking from API experiments often exhibit nonideal curvature, which can result in biased estimates. Previous work showed that curvature can increase with age; however, selection criteria designed to eliminate such behavior yielded accurate estimates for two‐year‐aged specimens (70.3 ± 3.8 μT;
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