Refining the Jurassic Magnetic Quiet Zone

We present a coherent marine magnetic reversal record from the Pacific to refine the Jurassic Quiet Zone (JQZ). Our definitive magnetic anomaly record consists of high-resolution sea surface, mid-water (3-km level deep-towed), and near-bottom profiles (0.1-km to the seafloor) with the magnetic source layer constrained by gravity anomaly data and reflection and refraction seismics, all of which are newly collected during TN272 and SKQ2014S2 cruises. All magnetic anomaly data were corrected diurnal variations and the present-day ambient geomagnetic field. In comparing our three-level JQZ magnetic anomaly profiles with previous work in the Japanese lineations, we confirm a globally coherent anomaly sequence in the JQZ from M29 to M42, including the distinctive amplitude envelope decreasing back in time from M19 to M38, with a minimum at M41, and then increasing back in time. A strong similarity in the M37/M38 polarity attributes found both in magnetostratigraphic and marine magnetic records suggest that rapid magnetic reversals were occurring during the M38 time in the JQZ. Seismic and gravity profiles from the Hawaiian JQZ seafloor show late-stage Cretaceous volcanism thickening crust by up to 150% with extra melt emplaced at the Moho, and numerous sills and volcanic cones in the sediment and on the seafloor. The region of thickest crust in the Hawaiian lineation corridor coincides with the region of the lowest JQZ anomaly amplitudes, very similar to the Low Amplitude Zone of Japanese lineation sequence, suggesting that the JQZ anomaly character can represent changes in geomagnetic field intensity over time but is free of the effects of Cretaceous volcanic overprint. We conducted inversion modeling to establish polarity block models and to estimate reversal rates. Reversal rates are the highest during periods with the lowest anomaly amplitudes, indicating a unique period of geomagnetic field behavior in the Earth's history.