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Cooling rate effect as a cause of systematic overestimating of the absolute Thellier paleointensities: A cautionary note

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Abstract

Cooling rate (CR) effects on the intensity of thermoremanent magnetization has been documented for archaeomagnetic materials, where cooling in laboratory conditions is generally much faster compared to natural cooling rates. Since the latter condition also applies to many volcanic rocks, we have investigated in this study the influences of the CR on the determination of absolute paleointensity using recent basaltic rocks. We used magnetically and thermally stable samples mainly containing Ti-poor pseudo-singledomain titanomagnetites (the most widely used material for Thellier paleointensity experiments). These samples previously succeed in retrieving the strength of laboratory field intensities with the Coe’s version of the Thellier method in a simulated paleointensity experiment using similar cooling rates. Our experimental results indicate that the cooling rate effects produce systematic and significant overestimates of the absolute intensity up to 70%. The effect can be much larger than predicted by Neél theory for non-interacting single-domain grains.

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Author notes

  1. A. Goguitchaichvili

    Present address: Departamento de Geología y Mineralogía, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Michoacán, Mexico

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Geomagnetismo y Exploración, Laboratorio de Paleomagnetismo y Geofísica Nuclear, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D. F., C. P. 04510

    J. Morales, A. Goguitchaichvili & J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi

  2. Laboratorio Interinstitucional de Magnetismo Natural, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sede Michoacan, Coeneo, Michoacan

    A. Goguitchaichvili

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  1. J. Morales
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  2. A. Goguitchaichvili
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  3. J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi
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Morales, J., Goguitchaichvili, A. & Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J. Cooling rate effect as a cause of systematic overestimating of the absolute Thellier paleointensities: A cautionary note. Stud Geophys Geod 51, 315–326 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11200-007-0017-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11200-007-0017-4

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