ALBERT

Description: We have constructed an alternating-field (AF) demagnetizer with a magnetic core in a passively air-cooled coil that can routinely operate at fields up to 0.5 tesla, almost three times higher than we could attain before in our commercial instrument. The field is powered by a commercial 1 kW power amplifier and is transverse to the bore, uniform to ±2% over a 25 mm paleomagnetic sample, and compatible with our existing sample handler for automated demagnetization and measurement. Even harmonics are ≤1 ppm of the fundamental and so generate negligible anhysteretic remanence. The much higher peak alternating field, 2 and 5 times that commonly available in air-core solenoidal and Helmhotz coil configurations, respectively, enables successful AF demagnetization of many samples that could not be completely demagnetized with commercially available equipment. This capability is especially useful for high-coercivity sedimentary and igneous rocks and extra-terrestrial materials that contain magnetic minerals that alter during thermal demagnetization. In addition to the benefits this instrument brings to our own research, a much broader potential impact is that it could replace the transverse coils of most automated AF demagnetization systems in use today, whether for discrete or continuous U-channel measurements, which are commonly limited to peak fields of ∼100 mT. Manual and tumbling demagnetizers would benefit as well by the ∼2-times increase in maximum field over those that can be attained by commercial solenoidal coils. Furthermore, we expect that it and similarly designed magnetic-core instruments will be capable of attaining even higher fields, of order 1 tesla. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: The 1.95-km-thick Cassia Formation, defined in the Cassia Hills at the southern margin of the Snake River Plain, Idaho, consists of 12 refined and newly described rhyolitic members, each with distinctive field, geochemical, mineralogical, geochronological, and paleomagnetic characteristics. It records voluminous high-temperature, Snake River–type explosive eruptions between ca. 11.3 Ma and ca. 8.1 Ma that emplaced intensely welded rheomorphic ignimbrites and associated ash-fall layers. One ignimbrite records the ca. 8.1 Ma Castleford Crossing eruption, which was of supereruption magnitude (~1900 km 3 ). It covers 14,000 km 2 and exceeds 1.35 km thickness within a subsided, proximal caldera-like depocenter. Major- and trace-element data define three successive temporal trends toward less-evolved rhyolitic compositions, separated by abrupt returns to more-evolved compositions. These cycles are thought to reflect increasing mantle-derived basaltic intraplating and hybridization of a midcrustal region, coupled with shallower fractionation in upper-crustal magma reservoirs. The onset of each new cycle is thought to record renewed intraplating at an adjacent region of crust, possibly as the North American plate migrated westward over the Yellowstone hotspot. A regional NE-trending monocline, here termed the Cassia monocline, was formed by synvolcanic deformation and subsidence of the intracontinental Snake River basin. Its structural and topographic evolution is reconstructed using thickness variations, offlap relations, and rheomorphic transport indicators in the successive dated ignimbrites. The subsidence is thought to have occurred in response to incremental loading and modification of the crust by the mantle-derived basaltic magmas. During this time, the area also underwent NW-trending faulting related to opening of the western Snake River rift and E-W Basin and Range extension. The large eruptions probably had different source locations, all within the subsiding basin. The proximal Miocene topography was thus in marked contrast to the more elevated present-day Yellowstone plateau.

Description: We have constructed an alternating-field (AF) demagnetizer with a magnetic core in a passively air-cooled coil that can routinely operate at fields up to 0.5 T, almost 3 times higher than we could attain before in our commercial instrument. The field is powered by a commercial 1 kW power amplifier and is transverse to the bore, uniform to ±2% over a 25 mm paleomagnetic sample, and compatible with our existing sample handler for automated demagnetization and measurement. Even harmonics are ≤1 ppm of the fundamental and so generate negligible anhysteretic remanence. The much higher peak alternating field, 2 and 5 times that commonly available in air-core solenoidal and Helmhotz coil configurations, respectively, enables successful AF demagnetization of many samples that could not be completely demagnetized with commercially available equipment. This capability is especially useful for high-coercivity sedimentary and igneous rocks and extraterrestrial materials that contain magnetic minerals that alter during thermal demagnetization. In addition to the benefits, this instrument brings to our own research, a much broader potential impact is that it could replace the transverse coils of most automated AF demagnetization systems in use today, whether for discrete or continuous U-channel measurements, which are commonly limited to peak fields of ∼100 mT. Manual and tumbling demagnetizers would benefit as well by the ∼2 times increase in maximum field over those that can be attained by commercial solenoidal coils. Furthermore, we expect that it and similarly designed magnetic-core instruments will be capable of attaining even higher fields, of order 1 T. © 2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.