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Science 24 February 1967:
Vol. 155. no. 3765, pp. 1012 - 1013
DOI: 10.1126/science.155.3765.1012
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Articles

Kiaman Magnetic Interval in the Western United States

Beverly E. McMahon 1 and David W. Strangway 2

1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder
2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139

Late-Paleozoic red beds in the western United States indicate that Earth's magnetic field was reversed for a period of the order of 50 x 106 years. This finding agrees with similar results from igneous rocks in Australia, indicating, that the long period of reversal in the magnetic field was worldwide. The rocks on the two continents appear to be essentially equivalent in time, suggesting early magnetization of the red beds. The time spectrum of reversals is irregular in geologic time, but present evidence suggests reversals characterized by time scales of 104 or 105, 106, and 50 x 106 years. The 50 x 106 year period of steady reversed field is found in the late Paleozoic and is termed the Kiaman magnetic interval.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Geomagnetic Reversals during the Phanerozoic.
M. W. McElhinny and M. W. McElhinny (1971)
Science 172, 157-159
   Abstract »    PDF »
Geomagnetic Reversals.
A. Cox and A. Cox (1969)
Science 163, 237-245
   PDF »


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