Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
American Association for Cancer Research

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 September 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5178, pp. 1561 - 1563
DOI: 10.1126/science.265.5178.1561

Articles

Grain Size—Dependent Alteration and the Magnetization of Oceanic Basalts

Dennis V. Kent 1 and Jeff Gee 1

1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

Unblocking temperatures of natural remanent magnetization were found to extend well above the dominant Curie points in samples of oceanic basalts from the axis of the East Pacific Rise. This phenomenon is attributed to the natural presence in the basalts of three related magnetic phases: an abundant fine-grained and preferentially oxidized titanomagnetite that carries most of the natural remanent magnetism, a few coarser and less oxidized grains of titanomagnetite that account for most of the high-field magnetic properties, and a small contribution to both the natural remanent magnetism and high-field magnetic properties from magnetite that may be due to the disproportionation of the oxidized titanomagnetite under sea-floor conditions. This model is consistent with evidence from the Central Anomaly magnetic high that the original magnetization acquired by oceanic basalts upon cooling is rapidly altered and accounts for the lack of sensitivity of bulk rock magnetic parameters to the degree of alteration of the remanence carrier in oceanic basalts.

Submitted on May 10, 1994
Accepted on July 18, 1994


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Polar Standstill of the Mid-Cretaceous Pacific Plate and Its Geodynamic Implications.
J. A. Tarduno, J. A. Tarduno, and W. W. Sager (1995)
Science 269, 956-959
   Abstract »    PDF »



ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)