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Abstract Large impact craters on Earth are associated with prominent magnetic anomalies, residing in magnetite of the shocked target rocks and impactites. Shock experiments on magnetite suggest that up to 90% of magnetic susceptibility is lost at pressures >5 GPa, but can be partially restored by post‐shock thermal annealing. The magnetic property changes are caused by shock induced grain size reduction and fragmentation, as well as domain wall‐pinning at crystal lattice defects. A recent study of granitoids from the peak‐ring of the Chicxulub crater found that annealing may occur naturally, but can also be overprinted by high‐temperature hematite‐to‐magnetite transformation in non‐oxidizing environments. In this study, we isolate the effect of defect annealing and hematite‐to‐magnetite transformation using the evolution of hysteresis, isothermal remanent magnetization components and first order reversal curve (FORC) diagrams at different high‐temperature steps. We used a laboratory‐shocked magnetite‐quartz ore, a non‐shocked naturally oxidized granite, and a naturally shocked and oxidized granite. Our findings suggest that annealing of shock‐induced lattice defects partially restores some pre‐shock magnetic behavior and causes an apparent average bulk‐sample domain state increase. Hematite‐to‐magnetite transformation creates new fine‐grained magnetite that strongly overprints the original signal, and decreases the average bulk‐sample domain state. Where annealing and hematite‐to‐magnetite transformation both occur, the new magnetite masks the annealing‐induced property restoration and apparent domain state modification in the shocked magnetite. As magnetite oxidation is a ubiquitous process in surface rocks, these findings are fundamental to understand hematite‐to‐magnetite transformation as a potential overprint mechanism, and could have broad implications for paleomagnetic interpretations. 

SUMMARY Cyclic loading at elevated temperatures occurs either naturally during tectonic or volcanic-induced earthquakes or can be human-induced due to various geological engineering activities. The aim of this study is to test if mechanical fatigue in rocks can be monitored by magnetic methods. For this purpose, the effect of cyclic-mechanical loading (150 ± 30 MPa) on the magnetic susceptibility and its anisotropy of a magnetite-bearing ore with varying temperatures (400 and 500 °C) and environment (air and vacuum) was investigated. Our study shows that magnetic susceptibility decreases significantly (up to 23 per cent) under air conditions and in vacuum (up to 4 per cent) within the first ca. 1000 cycles. Further loading does not significantly affect the magnetic susceptibility which then remains more or less constant. The decrease of susceptibility parameters is stronger at 500 °C compared to 400 °C under both experimental conditions. Magnetic susceptibility was always measured after decompression of the loaded sample at room temperature so that magnetostriction can be excluded as a reason for these changes. The higher the temperature at which samples were loaded the more pronounced is the oxidation of magnetite to haematite. The transformation of magnetite into haematite under ambient conditions is the most important mechanism influencing bulk magnetic properties. The weak changes in magnetic susceptibility after vacuum loadings are probably caused by intragranular microcracks formed on the surface of magnetite grains. These surface deformation structures are accompanied by the refinement of magnetic domains, which is observed by magnetic force microscopy. Bulk magnetic grain size modifications are also confirmed by hysteresis parameters as well as by the increasing Hopkinson peak ratios determined from magnetic susceptibility measurements over Curie point. The degree of magnetic anisotropy and shape factor only change for the air-treated samples and are therefore related to the haematite formation and not to irreversible ductile deformation in magnetite. Our experimental study shows that cyclic loading can change significantly the magnetic properties of a rock due to mineral transformation below < 1000 cycles and that the first stages of mechanical fatigue, which are a precursor of the failure of rock, are closely associated with these transformations.