Analysis of the Allende chondritic meteorite's remanence

We report a paleomagnetic study of the magnetic remanence recorded by a piece of the Allende carbonaceous chondritic meteorites. We have cut the sample up into sub-millimetre pieces to access the uniformity of the natural remanent magnetisation recorded through the meteorite. We have measured the anisotropy of anhysteretic remanent magnetization in the samples, to assess the degree to which magnetic fabrics may affect the recorded magnetic remanence. The main magnetic carrier was found to pyrrhotite. In addition, we have determined the ancient magnetic field intensities (paleointensities) recorded by the Allende meteorites. We have employed two non-heating methods of determining the ancient field intensity: (1) the calibrated REM method and (2) the newly developed Preisach-based approach that determines absolute paleointensities.