Four decades of paleomagnetic studies of magnetite in carbonate rocks: a history of remagnetizations
Abstract
With the advent of cryogenic magnetometers in the early 1970's, paleomagnetic studies of carbonate rocks became possible and it was quickly established that magnetite generally was the carrier of an ancient remanence in non-red limestones. For about a decade, this magnetite was thought to be detrital, implying that the magnetizations were primary, i.e., dating back to the time of deposition of the strata. Gray Devonian limestones from Ohio, Arizona's Grand Canyon, Arkansas, and New York revealed directions similar to those of Permian rocks in North America, resulting in APWP loops and erroneous large-scale tectonic conclusions about an "Acadia" displaced terrane and Europe-Laurentia reconstructions. However, when syn-folding magnetizations became documented, the prevailing interpretations quickly changed. Remagnetizations became the rule rather than the exception. The carrier was no longer thought to be detrital, and abundant magnetite in the form of spherules and framboids imaged in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) seemed to be the answer to the quest for a growth mechanism of this mineral. In some cases, magnetite could be seen as oxidation rims to Fe-sulfide cores. Also, at about this time, hysteresis parameters of remagnetized carbonates, plotted in Day diagrams, revealed unique patterns, which did not match the parameters measured on individual spherules. Growth of the magnetite from a superparamagnetic size to single- and pseudo-single-domain size is currently the favored mode of occurrence of the magnetite, and some SEM images support this. Important unresolved questions remain, however. Notably, it remains puzzling why the remagnetizations most often appear to have been acquired at the time the nearest orogeny occurred, and what role fluids played in this process.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMGP54A..01V
- Keywords:
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- 1533 GEOMAGNETISM AND PALEOMAGNETISM / Remagnetization