The emerging field of magnetic microscopy allows scientists to reconstruct ancient magnetic fields from individual magnetic particles. A new study evaluates the accuracy of the technique.
paleomagnetism
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Sediment Magnetism Captures the South Atlantic Anomaly
Magnetic data from an ODP core deposited during normal secular variation (65-41 thousand years ago) off the Chilean margin help clarify geomagnetic field behavior in the South Atlantic Anomaly region.
Posted inNews
Apollo Samples Told a Conflicting Story About Lunar Magnetism, Until Now
Observations suggested the Moon had both a weak and strong magnetic field in the distant past. A new study presents a theory accommodating all the evidence.
Posted inNews
What do BLOBs Have to Do with Earth’s Magnetic Field? A Lot, It Turns Out
Enormous provinces of superheated mantle exert a powerful influence over our planet’s magnetic field, researchers have discovered.
Posted inNews
Credible or Counterfeit: How Paleomagnetism Can Help Archaeologists Find Frauds
Duplicating artifacts that preserve records from biblical times is a lucrative business. A method used for both dating artifacts and reconstructing Earth’s history could identify phony pieces.
Posted inNews
The Long and the Weak of It—The Ediacaran Magnetic Field
A roughly 70-million-year interval of anomalously weak magnetic field during the Ediacaran period could have triggered atmospheric changes that supported the rise of macroscopic life.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Lakeside Sandstones Hold Key to Ancient Continent’s Movement
Using paleomagnetic samples collected along the shores of Lake Superior, a new study illuminates the movement of a billion-year-old paleocontinent as it crept south toward a tectonic collision.
Posted inNews
Blame It on the BLOBs
For decades, scientists have suspected that large volcanic eruptions have their origins in two mysterious massive regions at the base of our planet’s mantle. Now, it’s been statistically proven.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
300 Million Years of Polar Wander: Slowly but Surely
A reanalysis of paleomagnetic poles provides tighter bounds on the style and rate of motions of our whole planet with respect to its rotation axis.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Remagnetization Illuminates Tectonic Consolidation of Megacontinents
New rock and paleomagnetic research give evidence for prolonged heating during the Cambrian-Ordovician tectonic consolidation of West Gondwanaland.