cooling rate correction of paleointensity determination for volcanic glasses by relaxation geospeedometry the influence of the cooling rate on paleointensity estimates was investigated for samples from a vertical profile across a 600 a d obsidian lava flow ramp from lipari italy the natural cooling rates at the glass transition which were previously determined for the seven investigated samples by relaxation geospeedometry vary by a factor of more than 4 rock magnetic investigations indicate a magnetic microlite fraction in the single domain grain size range and strong magnetic anisotropy the thermoremanence anisotropy tensor was determined for each specimen to correct the paleointensity results for this anisotropy the cooling rate dependency of the thermoremanence was determined experimentally extrapolation to natural cooling rates indicate an overestimate of the paleointensity by 13 to 20 during experiments with typical laboratory cooling rates correcting for the different cooling rates and the cooling rate dependencies within the vertical profile significantly reduces the standard deviation of the average flow paleointensity the average paleointensity for the 543 19 a d flow ramp results in 52 4 1 1 t corresponding to a virtual axial dipole moment of 9 2 0 2 am2 uncertainties introduced by anisotropy correction and cooling rate extrapolation are considered by error propagation

eruptive processes and caldera formation in a nested downsagcollapse caldera cerro panizos central andes mountains abstract the cerro panizos ignimbrite center in the central andes mountains produced two ignimbrite sheets and many lava flows the ignimbrite of quebrada cienago was erupted at 7 9 ma and effusive eruptions continued until the two cooling units of the crystal rich dacitic cerro panizos ignimbrite were emplaced at 6 7 ma the lower unit has no laterally continuous flow breaks and was erupted from a single vent or small cluster of vents with limited fluctuation in discharge lithic fragments reach significant concentrations 5 only in the uppermost two meters of this cooling unit where they document vent wall collapse or the opening of a new vent the upper cooling unit contains many flow units with variations in welding thicknesses and lithic fragment concentrations implying an unsteady eruption column the opening of many vents and probable caldera collapse triangulation of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility flow direction measurements locate a single vent for the lower cooling unit whereas the upper cooling unit had many vents within the present dome cluster a 15 km diameter topographic depression marked by inward dips of 4 8 at the cooling unit contact is centered on the vent area of the lower cooling unit the depression is interpreted as a downsag caldera formed during emplacement of the lower cooling unit collapse began late in the eruption of the lower cooling unit and continued through the emplacement of the upper cooling unit resurgent magmatism occurred as lava flows that mundated the caldera area a ring of dacite domes erupted until at least 6 1 ma in the northern half of the downsag caldera traces the margin of a collapse caldera associated with the upper cooling unit maximum caldera subsidence 353 km 3 is not enough to account for the erupted volume 652 km 3 dre minimum the ash poor crystal rich nature up to 50 crystals in the pumice 75 in the matrix of the cerro panizos pyroclastic flows resulted in poor retention of gases and there is little evidence of fluidization the high crystal content however favored modified grain flow processes in which several particle support mechanisms combine with grain dispersive forces it is postulated that the flows were initially partially fluidized but rapidly lost their gases and grain flow processes grew in relative importance grain flow processes destroyed evidence of fluidization before deposition

the use of palaeomagnetism and rock magnetism to understand volcanic processes introduction this special publication provides a snapshot of our understanding of volcanic processes through the use of palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic techniques here we provide a context for the book placing individual chapters within the milieu of previous work including some magnetic techniques that were not used in the particular studies described herein thermoremanent magnetization is a powerful tool to understand processes related to heating and cooling of rocks including estimating the temperature of emplacement of pyroclastic deposits which may allow us to better understand the rates of cooling during eruption and transport anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and anisotropy of remanence are used primarily to investigate rock fabrics and allow the interpretation of flow dynamics in dykes lava flows and pyroclastic deposits as well as the location of the eruptive vents rock magnetic characteristics can help in the correlation of volcanic deposits but also provide means to date volcanic deposits and to better understand the processes of cooling of the deposits as the magnetic minerals can change with temperature in addition volcanic rocks may be key recorders of past magnetic fields allowing a better understanding of changes in field intensity and perhaps providing clues of how the magnetic field is formed over the past several decades palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic techniques have been applied to numerous problems in volcanology since aramaki akimoto s pioneering study in 1957 which used natural remanent magnetization nrm data to qualitatively estimate the temperature of emplacement of selected pyroclastic deposits in japan aramaki akimoto 1957 many studies have utilized and refined the approach of using progressive thermal demagnetization data to estimate emplacement temperatures of pyroclastic deposits and have demonstrated the utility of this approach in many settings another extensively utilized technique is that of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams which was first applied to pyroclastic volcanic rocks by ellwood 1982 on ignimbrites in the san juan mountains sw colorado usa to estimate flow fabrics and in that study to infer source locations through triangulation it is staggering to think of the number and diversity of ams studies on volcanic rocks that have been undertaken since that time in a bit more than three decades remanent magnetization characteristics have long been used to correlate volcanic rocks and such data together with rock magnetic properties have been employed to study crystallization and cooling processes e g schlinger et al 1988 wells hillhouse 1989 as techniques have been refined and the sensitivity precision reliability and or speed of measurements for an array of modern instrumentation all have improved workers have been able to study volcanic problems in more detail pulling out details of the processes that have not previously been considered in addition the types of problems addressed have diversified considerably we intend this special publication to provide a representative suite of contributions that help to summarize the current array of studies that apply palaeomagnetism and rock magnetism to volcanic processes and to stimulate further research in this exciting science this book is a result of two sessions on volcanic processes and palaeomagnetism held at the international union of geodesy and geophysics congress in melbourne australia in july 2011 and at the american geophysical union annual meeting in san francisco usa in december 2011 from ort m h porreca m geissman j w eds 2015 the use of palaeomagnetism and rock magnetism to understand volcanic processes geological society london special publications 396 1 11 first published online january 20 2015 http dx doi org 10 1144 sp396 17 2015 the geological society of london for permissions http www geolsoc org uk permissions publishing disclaimer www geolsoc org uk pub ethics angharad hills at the geological society of london graciously and tactfully guided this book and the editors through the entire process from chapter solicitation to publication thermoremanent magnetization in volcanic rocks and emplacement temperature

magnetic properties in an ash flow tuff with continuous grain size variation a natural reference for magnetic particle granulometry the tiva canyon tuff contains dispersed nanoscale fe ti oxide grains with a narrow magnetic grain size distribution making it an ideal material in which to identify and study grain size sensitive magnetic behavior in rocks a detailed magnetic characterization was performed on samples from the basal 5 m of the tuff the magnetic materials in this basal section consist primarily of low impurity magnetite in the form of elongated submicron grains exsolved from volcanic glass magnetic properties studied include bulk magnetic susceptibility frequency dependent and temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility anhysteretic remanence acquisition and hysteresis properties the combined data constitute a distinct magnetic signature at each stratigraphic level in the section corresponding to different grain size distributions the inferred magnetic domain state changes progressively upward from superparamagnetic grains near the base to particles with pseudo single domain or metastable single domain characteristics near the top of the sampled section direct observations of magnetic grain size confirm that distinct transitions in room temperature magnetic susceptibility and remanence probably denote the limits of stable single domain behavior in the section these results provide a unique example of grain size dependent magnetic properties in noninteracting particle assemblages over three decades of grain size including close approximations of ideal stoner wohlfarth assemblages and may be considered a useful reference for future rock magnetic studies involving grain size sensitive properties

quantification of magnetic nanoparticles with broad band frequency magnetic susceptibility measurements a case study of an upper loess palaeosol succession at luochuan chinese loess plateau

the tuff of san felipe an extensive middle miocene pyroclastic flow deposit in baja california mexico we document the existence of a widespread miocene ash flow tuff sheet in northeastern baja california mexico the tuff of san felipe new name was erupted from a vent east of the sierra san felipe of ne baja california at ca 12 6 ma this is the only widespread middle miocene pyroclastic flow deposit identified in northeastern baja california its distinctive age and widespread distribution make it an important marker horizon for structural reconstruction of this part of the gulf extensional province which is on the pacific plate the vent position near the modern gulf of california coast allows the possibility that exposures of the tuff of san felipe may be preserved east of the gulf on the north america plate in sonora yielding a tie point for the past relative position of the two plates this paper summarizes all known information including petrography geochemistry geochronology paleomagnetics geographic distribution and field appearance of this important tuff it is a densely welded crystal rich lithic lapilli pyroclastic flow deposit with 5 15 alkali feldspar and can be 180 m thick in some locations near the vent the tuff of san felipe is 40 m thick up to 40 km sw of the vent and 10 m thick at least 25 km nnw of the vent a minimum volume estimate for the deposit is 54 km 3 some recent 40 ar 39 ar age determinations suggest that the tuff is about 12 6 ma in age in all locations studied the tuff of san felipe has a unique low inclination reversed magnetization which may record a field transition or a geomagnetic excursion within reversed polarity subchron c5ar 2r 12 401 to 12 678 ma this low inclination magnetization as well as the mineralogy and age is key to correlating the tuff across the region because deposits are highly disrupted by subsequent normal faulting and outcrops are sparse and discontinuous away from the vent the documentation of these characteristics is important because the tuff of san felipe is a key structural marker for the subsequent development of the pacific north america plate boundary in the gulf of california and it will be important to identify this tuff in outcrops elsewhere on the baja california peninsula and on the north america plate in sonora

the nature of magnetic single domains in volcanic glasses of the kbs tuff magnetic and optical variations in volcanic glasses of the east african rift have been investigated by means of experimental and analytical study the results add to the formal understanding of magnetism in volcanic glasses and give us new perspectives on the nature origin and significance of fine grained magnetic minerals and on the magnetic petrology of glassy rocks the samples that we have studied in detail glass shards from the kbs tuff of northern kenya contain a superparamagnetic precipitate of microcrystals 2 to 10 nm in size the precipitate is likely to have formed at elevated temperature during or subsequent to eruption about 1 9 m y ago we have studied these microcrystals by means of transmission electron microscopy tem ac and dc magnetic methods electron spin resonance esr mossbauer spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy our efforts have concentrated on determining the magnetic mineralogy and understanding the mechanism s responsible for the optical and magnetic behavior of these glasses the particle size determination for the larger of these microcrystals has been achieved using tem imaging and mossbauer spectroscopy the mineralogy is nonstoichiometric magnetite based on mossbauer x ray diffraction and electron diffraction results the ratio of saturation remanent magnetization to saturation magnetization for the larger microcrystals is very nearly that predicted by single domain theory for a uniaxial anisotropy the origin of which may lie with stress or surface effects we interpret magnetic and esr results to infer the possible existence of microcrystals or amorphous clusters of fe atoms 1 nm or smaller in kbs glasses that appear homogeneous in high resolution tem images results from optical absorption experiments show that the color variations in kbs shards arise due to optical absorption by the precipitate a result consistent with classical electromagnetic theory

discrete single domain and pseudo single domain titanomagnetite particles in silicic glass of an ash flow tuff single domain and pseudo single domain titanium poor magnetite grains are present in silicic vitrophyre glass of an ash flow tuff from western nevada conventional transmission electron microscopy and analytical electron microscopy corroborate inferences made solely from rock magnetic and remanence data that the thermoremanent magnetization in the vitrophyre is carried by such grains the magnetite grains vary in size shape and distribution throughout the glass they probably crystal lized during violent eruption and welding of the ash flow at temperatures well in excess of 600 c

nonlinear preisach maps detecting and characterizing separate remanent magnetic fractions in complex natural samples natural remanent magnetization carriers in rocks can contain mixtures of magnetic minerals that interact in complex ways and are challenging to characterize by current measurement techniques here a non linear mapping scheme is described that efficiently enhances sensitivity and the resolution power of remanent preisach maps using this scheme a large dynamic range of magnetic moments and coercivities can be reliably resolved the method is applied to synthetic and natural standard samples containing magnetite and hematite as well as to natural samples from remanent magnetic anomalies where complex microstructures are observed it is shown that certain offset high coercivity patterns in remanent preisach maps may serve as fingerprints for exsolution structures of ilmenite in hematite or hematite in ilmenite and that in some magnetite bearing remanent anomalies the magnetite coercivity is increased beyond its intrinsic coercivity range experimental results and theoretical considerations indicate a minimal coercivity of about 10 mt for sd magnetite such that observation of lower coercivities implies psd or md grain sizes a diagnostic hematite pattern with a peak downwards offset of 17 2 of the intrinsic coercivity is found that is stable over a large range of intrinsic coercivities and may be related to shielding of internal defect or lamellar moments by a spin canting response to the internal field

magnetic grain size variations through an ash flow sheet influence on magnetic properties and implications for cooling history rock magnetic studies of tuffs are essential to the interpretation of paleomagnetic data derived from such rocks provide a basis for interpretation of aeromagnetic data over volcanic terranes and yield insights into the depositional and cooling histories of ash flow sheets a rhyolitic ash flow sheet the miocene aged tiva canyon member of the paintbrush tuff contains both titanomagnetite phenocrysts present in the magma prior to eruption and cubic fe oxide microcrystals that grew after emplacement systematic variations in the quantity and magnetic grain size of the microcrystals produce large variations in magnetic properties through a section of the ash flow sheet penetrated in a borehole on the nevada test site natural remanent magnetization varies from less than 1 10 4 to more than 8 10 4 a m3 kg 1 and in phase magnetic susceptibility varies from less than 1 10 6 to more than 10 10 6 m3 kg 1 the microcrystals which include both magnetite and maghemite have curie points and maximum unblocking temperatures between 580 c and 640 c rock magnetic data including in phase and quadrature magnetic susceptibilities as well as hysteresis parameters demonstrate that these microcrystals are of superparamagnetic and single domain sizes titanomagnetite phenocrysts are the dominant remanence carriers in the central 50 m of the section whereas microcrystals are important contributors to remanent magnetization and magnetic susceptibility in two 15 m thick zones at the top and bottom within these zones the size of microcrystals decreases both toward the quenched margins and toward the interior of the sheet the decrease in microcrystal size toward the interior of the sheet is interpreted to indicate the presence of a cooling break possibly represented by a concentration of pumice laboratory heating produces changes in magnetic properties which vary complexly from sample to sample such changes include 1 decrease in saturation magnetization 2 both increase and decrease in in phase and quadrature magnetic susceptibilities and 3 shifts in coercivity spectra the complex sample to sample variation in response to heating is attributed to differences in initial grain size distributions

retreat rates modalities and agents responsible for erosion along the coastal chalk cliffs of upper normandy the contribution of terrestrial laser scanning in order to follow all the changes affecting the coastal chalk cliff face in upper normandy and improve knowledge about cliff erosion repeated terrestrial laser scanning tls surveys were carried out frequently between 2010 and 2013 every 4 5 months they were conducted at two sites with similar lithostratigraphic characteristics but different exposures to marine actions the former being an abandoned cliff and the latter an active cliff they provide a quantification of the production of debris with centimeter precision from 0 01 to 0 04 m these surveys provided three major outcomes 1 cliff retreat rates were measured at high spatial resolution with retreat values unsurprisingly 3 4 times higher for an active cliff than for an abandoned cliff this result highlights that marine actions should be seen as not only a transport agent but also a particularly effective erosion agent 2 a significant proportion of debris fall production about 25 in the total active cliff retreat was identified and 3 one of the modalities of retreat was visualized as the creation of a basal notch which propagates instability towards the upper part of the cliff face later this instability generates rock falls coming from the whole cliff face

paleomagnetic evidence for high temperature emplacement of the 1883 subaqueous pyroclastic flows from krakatau volcano indonesia the paroxysmal 1883 eruption of krakatau volcano in indonesia discharged at least 6 5 km3 dense rock equivalent of pyroclastic material into the shallow waters of the sunda straits within a 15 km radius of the volcano progressive thermal demagnetization studies of individually oriented pumice clasts from a core sample of the submarine pyroclastic deposits show that 41 out of 47 clasts exhibit single component remanence with mean inclination of 2 4 the partial thermoremanent magnetization components of both pumice and lithic clasts are well grouped in orientation indicating that substantial cooling of clasts must have occurred following deposition estimated subaqueous emplacement temperature for such clasts is greater than 500 c rare two component lithic fragments exhibit inflection points on vector endpoint diagrams that mark the temperature below which the fragments acquired magnetization of similar orientation these inflection points range from 350 to 550 c indicating a minimum subaqueous emplacement temperature of 350 c paleomagnetic evidence for high emplacement temperature supports the hypothesis that proximal 1883 submarine pyroclastic deposits resulted from entrance of hot subaerially generated pyroclastic flows into the sea similar deposits have been interpreted from the geologic record but this is the first documented example of submarine pyroclastic flows from a historic eruption the krakatau deposits thus serve as an important modern analog for the study of pyroclastic flow seawater interactions

geologic origin of magnetic volcanic glasses in the kbs tuff volcanic glass shards and banded pumice from the kbs tuff of northern kenya exhibit marked variations in magnetic susceptibility and color colorless to dark brown the darker glass shards exhibit superparamagnetism which they now know to be carried by a population of tiny microcrystals of fe rich cubic oxide approx 20 to approx 100 a in size thought to be magnetite a theory for their origin is one of nucleation and growth precipitation in quenched homogeneous glass colorless at temperatures of approx 700 1000 sup 0 c during and immediately subsequent to eruption results from high temperature heating experiments on kbs shards support this idea the precipitate appears in the kbs shards as a consequence of their cooling history and is the origin of their coloring the origin cannot lie in negligible compositional differences between the colorless and darkest shards on the other hand banded pumice from the kbs tuff has both dark and colorless glasses of differing compositions the pumice appears banded because precipitation occurred preferentially in the fe rich glass although magma mixing may have played a role in the eruption of these materials on the basis of their survey of distal eruptive products it would appear that the volumetric amount of the maficmore end member dark pumice was insubstantial less

magnetostratigraphy in pursuit of missing links since the last quadrennial report magneto stratigraphy has continued to flourish the primary issues have been 1 refinements to the geomagnetic reversal time scale grts including recalibrations correlation of biostratigraphic data to the crts and revision of the terminology 2 use of magnetostratigraphic data for estimating rates of such processes as sediment accumulation evolution and faunal migration and 3 magnetic mineralogy and the origin of remanence for convenience we have divided the publications into studies of continental and marine sediments and highlight the most exciting issues within each of these sub headings in the first section of this review we will concentrate on the development of the geomagnetic reversal time scale grts with particular emphasis on refinements from the last few years we then turn our attention to applications of magnetostratigraphy in marine and continental sequences

correlation of ash flow tuffs discrimination and correlation of ash flow sheets is important in structurally complex long lived volcanic fields where such sheets provide the best keys to the regional stratigraphic framework three dimensional complexities resulting from pulsatory eruptions sectorial emplacement mechanical sorting during outflow thermal and compositional zoning of magmas the physical zoning of cooling units and structural and erosional disruption can make such correlation and discrimination difficult when lithologic magnetic petrographic chemical and isotopic criteria for correlating ash flow sheets are critically evaluated many problems and pitfalls can be identified distinctive phenocrysts pumice clasts and lithic fragments are among the more reliable criteria as are high precision k ar ages and thermal remanent magnetization trm directions in unaltered welded tuff chemical correlation methods should rely principally upon welded or nonwelded pumice blocks not upon the ash flow matrix which is subject to fractionation mixing and contamination during emplacement compositional zoning of most large sheets requires that many samples be analyzed before phenocryst glass or whole rock chemical trends can be used confidently as correlation criteria

characterizing the superparamagnetic grain distribution f v hk by thermal fluctuation tomography 1 in 1965 d j dunlop showed that the joint distribution of particle volumes and microcoercivities f v hk0 can be determined for magnetically monomineralic thermally stable single domain ssd ensembles by taking advantage of the joint temperature and field dependence of relaxation time we have developed a procedure that follows dunlop s strategy to obtain f v hk0 for ensembles containing both superparamagnetic and ssd grains based on backfield remanence curves measured over a range of temperatures each point on the derivative curves represents the integrated contribution from grains that lie along a corresponding blocking contour on the neel plot a suitable set of such line integral samples can be used to reconstruct the f v hk0 distribution using the methods of tomographic imaging samples of the basal tiva canyon tuff have narrow size distributions of elongate ti poor titanomagnetite tomographic inversion of the low temperature backfield spectra yield sharply peaked f v hk0 distributions from which we calculate modal grain dimensions in good agreement with those observed by transmission electron microscopy analysis of synthetic samples containing bimodal populations clearly distinguishes the two modes because our simplified forward calculations incompletely account for the effects of orientation distribution the width of the coercivity distribution at each temperature is underestimated and consequently the inverse calculations yield grain distributions that are overly broad frequency and temperature dependent susceptibilities calculated for the inverted f v hk0 distributions accord fairly well with measured susceptibilities for the weakly interacting tiva canyon samples less well for a moderately interacting paleosol specimen and poorly for a strongly interacting ferrofluid

geomagnetic paleointensity between 1300 and 1750 a d derived from a bread oven floor sequence in lubeck germany geomagnetic paleointensities have been determined from a single archaeological site in lubeck germany where a sequence of 25 bread oven floors has been preserved in a bakery from medieval times until today age dating confines the time interval from about 1300 a d to about 1750 a d paleomagnetic directions have been published from each oven floor and are updated here the specimens have very stable directions and no or only weak secondary components the oven floor material was characterized rock magnetically using thellier viscosity indices median destructive field values curie point determinations and hysteresis measurements magnetic carriers are mixtures of sd psd and minor md magnetite and or maghemite together with small amounts of hematite paleointensity was measured from selected specimens with the double heating thellier method including ptrm checks and determination of trm anisotropy tensors corrections for anisotropy as well as for cooling rate turned out to be unnecessary ninety two percent of the thellier experiments passed the assigned acceptance criteria and provided four to six reliable paleointensity estimates per oven floor mean paleointensity values derived from 22 oven floors show maxima in the 15th and early 17th centuries a d followed by a decrease of paleointensity of about 20 until 1750 a d together with the directions the record represents about 450 years of full vector secular variation the results compare well with historical models of the earth s magnetic field as well as with a selected high quality paleointensity data set for western and central europe

cost effective erosion monitoring of coastal cliffs abstract structure from motion with multi view stereo sfm mvs methods hold the potential for monitoring and quantifying cliff erosion to levels of accuracy and precision which rival terrestrial laser scanning tls and at a fraction of the cost we benchmark repeat sfm mvs against tls for quantifying rock fall frequency volume and cliff face erosion rates for a 1 km section of coastal cliffs where cliff top infrastructure is threatened by erosion first we address a major unknown in these techniques the number and configuration of control points surveys demonstrate that a sparse configuration along the cliff base and top at spacing equivalent to the cliff height provides suitable accuracy at acceptable logistic time and expense second we show that sfm mvs models match equivalent tls data to within 0 04 m and that the correlation between intersecting tls and sfm derived rock fall volumes improves markedly above a detection threshold of 0 07 m3 rock falls below this size threshold account for 77 7 of detected rock falls but only 1 9 of the calculated annual eroded volume annual erosion rates for the 1 km cliff face as calculated by repeat tls and sfm differencing are 0 6 10 2 m a 1 and 0 7 10 2 m a 1 respectively kilometre scale patterns of cliff erosion are dominated by localised zones of high magnitude episodic failure that are over an order of magnitude greater than background rates the ability of non specialist engineers geologists geomorphologists and managers to rapidly capture high quality accurate erosion data in a cost effective manner through repeat sfm mvs has significant potential to inform coastal managers and decision makers to further empower coastal authorities and communities policy frameworks must be developed to incorporate and interpret these data

magnetic detection and characterization of biogenic magnetic minerals a comparison of ferromagnetic resonance and first order reversal curve diagrams australian research council grant number dp120103952 australia new zealand iodp consortium anzic grant number le0882854

volcanic ash particles as carriers of remanent magnetization in deep sea sediments from the kerguelen plateau abstract carbonate sediments from the kerguelen plateau odp leg 120 of eocene to pliocene age were investigated with rock magnetic petrographic and geochemical methods to determine the carriers of remanent magnetization magnetic methods showed that the major magnetic minerals were titanomagnetites slightly larger than single domain particles submicrometre to micrometre size grains of titanomagnetite were identified as inclusions in volcanic glass particles or as crystals in lithic clasts volcanic fallout ash particles formed the major fraction of the magnetic extract from each sediment sample three groups of volcanic ashes were identified trachytic ashes basaltic ashes with sideromelane and tachylite shards and palagonitic ashes these three groups could be equally well defined based on their magnetic hysteresis properties and alternating field demagnetization curves the highest coercivities of all samples were found for the tachylite due to the submicrometre size titanomagnetite inclusions in the matrix trachytic ashes had intermediate magnetic properties between the single domain type tachylites and the palagonitic altered basaltic ashes with low coercivities samples which contained mixtures of these different volcanic ashes could be distinguished from the three types of ashes based on their magnetic characteristics there was neither evidence of biogenic magnetofossils in the transmission electron micrographs nor did we find magnetic particles derived from continental antarctica the presence of dispersed volcanic fallout ashes between visible ash layers suggests continuous explosive volcanic activity on the kerguelen plateau in the south indian ocean since the early eocene the continuous fallout of volcanic ash from explosive volcanism on the kerguelen archipelago is the source of the magnetic particles and thus responsible for the magnetostratigraphy of the nannofossil oozes drilled during leg 120

geomagnetic paleointensity in historical pyroclastic density currents testing the effects of emplacement temperature and postemplacement alteration thellier type paleointensity experiments were conducted on welded ash matrix or pumice from the 1912 novarupta nv and 1980 mt st helens msh pyroclastic density currents pdcs with the intention of evaluating their suitability for geomagnetic paleointensity studies pdcs are common worldwide but can have complicated thermal and alteration histories we attempt to address the role that emplacement temperature and postemplacement hydrothermal alteration may play in nonideal paleointensity behavior of pdcs results demonstrate two types of nonideal behavior unstable remanence in multidomain md titanomagnetite and nonideal behavior linked to fumarolic and vapor phase alteration emplacement temperature indirectly influences msh results by controlling the fraction of homogenous md versus oxyexsolved pseudo single domain titanomagnetite nv samples are more directly influenced by vapor phase alteration the majority of nv samples show distinct two slope behavior in the natural remanent magnetization partial thermal remanent magnetization plots we interpret this to arise from a thermo chemical remanent magnetization associated with vapor phase alteration and samples with high water content 0 75 loss on ignition generate paleointensities that deviate most strongly from the true value we find that pdcs can be productively used for paleointensity but that as with all paleointensity studies care should be taken in identifying potential postemplacement alteration below the curie temperature and that large welded flows may be more alteration prone one advantage in using pdcs is that they typically have greater areal spatial exposure than a basalt flow allowing for more extensive sampling and better assessment of errors and uncertainty

an evolving research agenda for human coastal systems within the broad discourses of environmental change sustainability science and anthropogenic earth surface systems a focused body of work involves the coupled economic and physical dynamics of developed shorelines rapid rates of change in coastal environments from wetlands and deltas to inlets and dune systems help researchers recognize observe and investigate coupling in natural non human morphodynamics and biomorphodynamics this same intrinsic quality of fast paced change also makes developed coastal zones exemplars of observable coupling between physical processes and human activities in many coastal communities beach erosion is a natural hazard with economic costs that coastal management counters through a variety of mitigation strategies including beach replenishment groynes revetments and seawalls as cycles of erosion and mitigation iterate coastline change and economically driven interventions become mutually linked emergent dynamics of two way economic physical coupling is a recent research discovery having established a strong theoretical basis research into coupled human coastal systems has passed its early proof of concept phase this paper frames three major challenges that need resolving in order to advance theoretical and empirical treatments of human coastal systems 1 codifying salient individual and social behaviors of decision making in ways that capture societal actions across a range of scales thus engaging economics social science and policy disciplines 2 quantifying anthropogenic effects on alongshore and cross shore sediment pathways and long term landscape evolution in coastal zones through time including direct measurement of cumulative changes to sediment cells resulting from coastal development and management practices e g construction of buildings and artificial dunes bulldozer removal of overwash after major storms and 3 reciprocal knowledge and data exchange between researchers in coastal morphodynamics and practitioners of coastal management future research into human coastal systems can benefit from decades of interdisciplinary work on the complex dynamics of common pool resources from computational efficiency and new techniques in numerical modeling and from the growing catalog of high resolution geospatial data for natural and developed coastlines around the world

magnetic anisotropy in rhyolitic ignimbrite snake river plain implications for using remanent magnetism of volcanic rocks for correlation paleomagnetic studies and geological reconstructions some of the field and laboratory expenses for this work were covered by the natural environment research council nerc grant ne g005372 1 the salary and school fees for the first author were covered in part by a national science foundation nsf grant ear 443549 81179 awarded to x zhao

curie temperatures of titanomagnetite in ignimbrites effects of emplacement temperatures cooling rates exsolution and cation ordering pumices ashes and tuffs from mt st helens and from novarupta contain two principal forms of titanomagnetite homogeneous grains with curie temperatures in the range 350 500 c and oxyexsolved grains with similar bulk composition containing ilmenite lamellae and having curie temperatures above 500 c thermomagnetic analyses and isothermal annealing experiments in combination with stratigraphic settings and thermal models show that emplacement temperatures and cooling history may have affected the relative proportions of homogeneous and exsolved grains and have clearly had a strong influence on the curie temperature of the homogeneous phase the exsolved grains are most common where emplacement temperatures exceeded 600 c and in laboratory experiments heating to over 600 c in air causes the homogeneous titanomagnetites to oxyexsolve rapidly where emplacement temperatures were lower curie temperatures of the homogeneous grains are systematically related to overburden thickness and cooling timescales and thermomagnetic curves are generally irreversible with lower curie temperatures measured during cooling but little or no change is observed in room temperature susceptibility we interpret this irreversible behavior as reflecting variations in the degree of cation ordering in the titanomagnetites although we cannot conclusively rule out an alternative interpretation involving fine scale subsolvus unmixing short range ordering within the octahedral sites may play a key role in the observed phenomena changes in the curie temperature have important implications for the acquisition stabilization and retention of natural remanence and may in some cases enable quantification of the emplacement temperatures or cooling rates of volcanic units containing homogeneous titanomagnetites

rock magnetism of remagnetized paleozoic carbonates low temperature behavior and susceptibility characteristics we have conducted a new set of rock magnetic experiments on samples of remagnetized paleozoic carbonates of eastern north america these experiments were designed to investigate the origin of the unusual hysteresis behavior of these rocks by evaluating 1 the importance of ferrimagnetic pyrrhotite as a remanence carrier and 2 the sources of low field susceptibility low temperature measurements of saturation isothermal remanent magnetization sirm indicate that the pyrrhotite magnetic transition at 32 k is absent in the trenton and onondaga limestones of new york this transition is observed but poorly expressed in the knox group of east tennessee room temperature sirms cooled to 10 k in zero field lose a small fraction of their intensity between 30 and 35 k samples from all three formations show a broad peak in irm intensity at about 200 k which is typical of pyrrhotite in the trenton and onondaga samples the ferrimagnetic component of low field susceptibility is significantly larger than the ratio mrs hcr and is thus probably due dominantly to magnetite in some of the knox samples the reverse is true suggesting an important pyrrhotite contribution for all of the samples the ferrimagnetic susceptibility normalized by the saturation magnetization is anomalously high about a factor of 5 or 10 higher than the typical value for magnetite we believe that this indicates a very substantial contribution from superparamagnetic particles strong frequency dependence of susceptibility and very high ratios of anhysteretic to saturation remanence confirm the importance of ultrafine particles spanning the superparamagnetic single domain boundary all three of these chemically remagnetized carbonates units exhibit the following properties which have not previously been found together for any rock or synthetic analog and which therefore appear to constitute a diagnostic set of rockmagnetic criteria for recognizing chemically remagnetized rocks mrs ms 0 89 hcr hc 0 6 k ms 50 m a arm sirm 20 ka mrs hcr 50

application of broadband alternating current magnetic susceptibility to the characterization of magnetic nanoparticles in natural materials 1 a new method is proposed for characterizing magnetic particles by measuring low field alternating current magnetic susceptibility at a number of frequency steps spanning four orders of magnitude from 125 hz to 512 khz this method was tested using natural samples with various grain size distributions including basalt kilauea hawaii loess and paleosol luochuan china tuff yucca mountain nevada granite minnesota valley minnesota and andesite sakurajima japan the resulting frequency spectrum of magnetic susceptibility fsms of the basalt loess paleosol and tuff decreases with increasing frequency but at different rates of decrease the fsms of the basalt is characterized by a monotonic decrease with increasing frequency over the entire range the fsms of the loess paleosol and the tuff decreases more markedly than that of the basalt which agrees with previous results showing that superparamagnetic particles are dominant in such material quantitative estimates using fsmss allow reconstruction of characteristic grain size distributions and clearly identify differences in the distribution of superparamagnetic particles the multidomain granite sample has no distinct frequency dependence which is probably due to the smooth displacement of domain walls in the presence of the external field in contrast the fsmss of the andesite samples exhibit maxima over a limited frequency range between 16 and 128 khz this behavior together with low temperature measurements can be accounted for by magnetic resonance of domain walls in the multidomain phenocrysts

magnetism and magnetic mineralogy of ash flow tuffs from yucca mountain nevada the magnetic susceptibility and remanent magnetization of an ash flow sheet are profoundly influenced by cooling history after emplacement spatial variations in these properties therefore provide a potentially useful tool for geological studies maxima and minima in measured along profiles at yucca mountain nevada identify persistent magnetic marker horizons within vitric portions of the tiva canyon and underlying topopah spring members of the paintbrush tuff the correlatable variations of with vertical position in these units exist over the 8 km of strike examined the observed stratigraphic changes in magnetic properties reflect variations in amounts and mineralogy of fe ti oxide phenocrysts and the presence shape size and mineralogy of magnetic fe oxide microcrystals that precipitated at high temperature after emplacement of each sheet vitrophyre near the top of the topopah spring member has a distinctive maximum in due to titanomagnetite phenocrysts susceptibility in the lower portion of the overlying tiva canyon member reaches maximum values of about 1 3 10 2 si near the base of the member beneath the columnarly jointed vitrophyre due to the presence of abundant superparamagnetic cubic fe oxide these elongate microcrystals are several tens of nm long and are typically deformed and tapered up section in the tiva canyon member the susceptibility decreases going to a minimum within the columnar vitrophyre at this stratigraphic level the precipitated fe oxides are larger and carry intense nrm of up to 30 a m is only 3 10 3 the whisker like microcrystals of fe oxide which typically nucleated on what appears to be chain silicate grew as needles up to 25 m in length the size variations of the precipitated fe oxides which were established using transmission electron microscopy tem and petrographic observation are consistent both with variations in magnetic susceptibility measured at the outcrop and with variations in the intensity of remanent magnetization several interpretations of the shape anisotropy of the precipitated feoxide are possible including growth by a dislocation mechanism additionally the observed elongation of precipitated microcrystals is consistent with theoretical predictions for growth in a uniaxial stress field susceptibility variations as established at the outcrop as well as in the borehole offer a potentially useful tool for stratigraphic correlation of ash flow sheets

evidence for abundant isolated magnetic nanoparticles at the paleocene eocene boundary new rock magnetic results thermal fluctuation tomography high resolution first order reversal curves and low temperature measurements for samples from the paleocene eocene thermal maximum and carbon isotope excursion in cored sections at ancora and wilson lake on the atlantic coastal plain of new jersey indicate the presence of predominantly isolated near equidimensional single domain magnetic particles rather than the chain patterns observed in a cultured magnetotactic bacteria sample or magnetofossils in extracts the various published results can be reconciled with the recognition that chain magnetosomes tend to be preferentially extracted in the magnetic separation process but as we show may represent only a small fraction of the overall magnetic assemblage that accounts for the greatly enhanced magnetization of the carbon isotope excursion sediment but whose origin is thus unclear

ferromagnetic resonance characterization of greigite fe3s4 monoclinic pyrrhotite fe7s8 and non interacting titanomagnetite fe3 xtixo4 ferromagnetic resonance fmr spectroscopy has become an increasingly useful tool for studying the magnetic properties of natural samples magnetite fe3o4 is the only magnetic mineral that has been well characterized using fmr this limits the wider use of fmr in rock magnetism and paleomagnetism in this study we applied fmr analysis to a range of magnetic minerals including greigite fe3s4 monoclinic pyrrhotite fe7s8 magnetically non interacting titanomagnetite fe3 xtixo4 and synthetic magnetite chains to constrain interpretation of fmr analysis of natural samples and to explore applications of fmr spectroscopy we measured the fmr signatures of a wide range of well characterized samples at the x and q bands fmr spectra were also simulated numerically to compare with experimental results the effects of magnetic anisotropy mineralogy domain state and magnetostatic interactions on the fmr spectra are discussed for all studied minerals our experimental and theoretical analyses of magnetically non interacting tuff samples and magnetically interacting chains enable quantitative assessment of contributions of magnetostatic interactions and magnetic anisotropy to the fmr spectra our results also indicate that intact magnetosomes are a unique system with distinct fmr signatures while fmr analysis is useful for characterizing magnetic properties of natural samples care is needed when making interpretations because of overlaps in a range of fmr signatures of different magnetic minerals with different magnetic properties our analyses will help to constrain such interpretations in rock magnetic studies

bubble nucleation in magmas a dominantly heterogeneous process abstract bubble nucleation is at the heart of magma ascent and degassing nucleation kinetics control how easily a magma exsolves its volatiles and thereby its explosivity close to the surface homogeneous nucleation i e without assistance from crystal substrates or other phases often requires attainment of large supersaturation pressures p n 100 mpa the change in pressure required for onset of nucleation while heterogeneous nucleation on pre existing crystals can occur at significantly lower values p n p n given experimental constraints on pressure conditions at the onset of nucleation decompression rate meters e g toramaru 2006 also relate the number density of bubbles in pyroclasts a readily obtained textural characteristic to rates of pressure change dp dt during ascent all these treatments require an explicit or implicit decision as to whether magma degassing was dominated by homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation which is guided by the choice of surface tension values this contribution exploits the current textural datasets available for eruptions involving a variety of magma compositions to test the assumptions that homogeneous and or heterogeneous nucleation dominate bubble vesiculation in natural melts the comparison between pyroclast textures and those obtained via decompression experiments in the laboratory indicates that supersaturation pressures and decompression rates required for homogeneous nucleation are unrealistically high for natural magmas i review the arguments for and against homogenous nucleation and defend the alternate view that heterogeneous nucleation may dominate in all magma types including rhyolites in order to solve this central debate our focus needs to be shifted towards understanding the pre decompression phase equilibria and textural characteristics of magnetite in addition to the state of the melt structure

palaeomagnetism and chronology of the central taupo volcanic zone new zealand summary the central taupo volcanic zone tvz of new zealand is a region of intense quaternary silicic volcanism active since 1 6 ma we report palaeomagnetic measurements from 59 distinct volcanic units sampled at 98 sites in the tvz these are mainly rhyolitic ignimbrites and lava domes with a few basaltic andesitic and dacitic lavas most have new k ar or 4oar 39ar ages the remanent magnetizations are generally stable to both thermal and alternating field demagnetization and well determined mean palaeodirections were obtained for all sites our findings suggest that the taupo whakamaru maroa reporoa rotorua and okataina volcanic centres were magnetized during the brunhes normal chron kapenga is an older volcanic centre where activity commenced around 0 89 ma and extended into the brunhes mangakino volcanic centre is significantly older and was active from 1 6 to 0 95 ma transitional or intermediate palaeodirections were obtained from ahuroa ignimbrite 1 18 ko 02 ma and mamaku ignimbrite 0 22k0 01 ma the former almost certainly corresponds to the cobb mountain event the latter is significantly older than the blake event and probably corresponds to the recently reported pringle falls summer lake magnetic episode multiple sites from the whakamaru ignimbrite have indistinguishable 4oar 39ar ages 0 33 f 0 01 ma and glass composition but divergent palaeomagnetic directions this contrast suggests that either 1 the different sites were formed during a phase of extremely violent activity lasting up to a few hundred years during which geomagnetic secular variation was recorded or 2 that they were formed in a single eruption and rotation during subsequent extensional tectonism has caused divergence of the palaeodirections 40ar 39ar ages of 0 77 0 03 ma for the reversely magnetized rahopeka ignimbrite and 0 71 k 0 06 ma for the overlying normally magnetized waiotapu ignimbrite bracket and constrain the age of the matuyama brunhes transition

paleomagnetic directional dispersion produced by plastic deformation in a thick miocene welded tuff southern nevada implications for welding temperatures two voluminous rhyolitic to quartz latitic ash flow sheets the tiva canyon and topopah spring members of the paintbrush tuff were erupted from the miocene claim canyon cauldron in southern nevada although lithologically similar these units differ greatly in their recording of the ancient geomagnetic field the reversely magnetized tiva canyon member yields remanent directions that are well grouped both within and between sites the normally magnetized topopah spring member however yields remanent directions that vary both laterally and vertically remanent directions from a 100 m thick section of nonwelded to partially welded topopah spring are well grouped precision parameter k 200 and give a mean direction d 293 i 69 that is probably a good approximation of the geomagnetic field at the time of emplacement and cooling in three 300 m thick sections of more densely welded tuff inclinations from the upper parts of the topopah spring are steep 70 but flatten with depth to about 20 and then steepen abruptly near the base of the unit in general the directional dispersion increases with the thickness of the section k 30 for sections that are about 300 m thick much of the directional variation in the topopah spring can be attributed to an inclination error produced by subblocking temperature rotation of the magnetic carriers during welding the possibility of subblocking temperature deformation in an ash flow sheet is enhanced by 1 high blocking temperature spectra of the primary magnetic phases 2 relatively low emplacement temperatures and 3 great stratigraphic thickness thermal demagnetization results from the topopah spring member indicate that welding may have continued to temperatures as low as 475 c in the basal vitrophyre of the ash flow sheet remanent directions from the tiva canyon member were unaffected by the welding process because this unit possesses significantly lower blocking temperatures and does not attain the great thicknesses of the topopah spring

the use of magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence for delineation of a magnetic stratigraphy in ash flow tuffs variations in the grain size amount and mineralogy of magnetic phases in layered volcanic rocks define a magnetic stratigraphy that can be identified by means of magnetic susceptibility measurements in ash flow tuffs grain size and other variables that control susceptibility are to a large extent a function of the cooling and alteration history the phases responsible for the susceptibility of ash flow tuffs consist of post emplacement high temperature precipitates of fe oxides in volcanic glass and the phenocrystic fe ti oxides at yucca mountain nevada laterally continuous high susceptibility approximately 10 sup minus 2 si horizons exist in the paintbrush tuff due to the presence of either precipitates or phenocrystic fe ti oxides the frequency dependence of magnetic susceptibility chi omega can be used to discriminate between horizons with multi domain phenocrystic material the chi omega exhibits a 26 decrease per decade of increasing frequency for precipitate grain sizes where the superparamagnetic single domain state gives way to stable single domain behavior and thus chi omega offers an indirect method for rapid estimation of magnetic grain sizes the interpretation of variations established by field and laboratory susceptibility data has been constrained by petrography and transmission electron microscopy tem

fe oxide microcrystals in welded tuff from southern nevada origin of remanence carriers by precipitation in volcanic glass although it is widely recognized that remanent magnetism in ash flow tuffs is carried by fine grained fe oxides the origin mineralogy and significance of such magnetic carriers are not well understood the authors have obtained transmission electron microscope images of distinctive fe oxide microcrystals in rhyolitic samples located 3 8 7 6 and 18 5 m above the base of a 110 m thick section of the miocene tiva canyon member of the paintbrush tuff the fe oxide microcrystals are lath shaped and increase in size from 20 x 140 nm in the lowermost sample near base of the member to 120 x 800 nm in the uppermost sample within the flow interior microcrystals in this size range are within or close to the range of single domain grain size for magnetite electron diffraction and analytical x ray data indicate that the microcrystals in the lower two samples are cubic fe oxides magnetite maghemite with less than 10 mol ti end member and that those in the uppermost sample are manganiferous hematite systematic variations in magnetic properties are consistent with the observed variations in size and mineralogy of the microcrystals these microcrystals are morphologically distinct from grains that the authors interpret to be fragments of phenocrysts the morphology and spatial distribution ofmore the microcrystals as well as their increase in grain size from the rapidly cooled base of the ash flow sheet into the flow interior are consistent with an origin by nucleation and growth from volcanic glass at elevated temperature subsequent to emplacement less

paleointensity estimates from ignimbrites an evaluation of the bishop tuff 1 ash flow tuffs or ignimbrites typically contain fine grained magnetite spanning the superparamagnetic to single domain size range that should be suitable for estimating geomagnetic field intensity however ignimbrites may have a remanence of thermal and chemical origin as a result of the complex magnetic mineralogy and variations in the thermal and alteration history we examined three stratigraphic sections through the 0 76 ma bishop tuff where independent information on postemplacement cooling and alteration is available as a test of the suitability of ignimbrites for paleointensity studies thermomagnetic curves suggest that low ti titanomagnetite tc 560 c 580 c is the dominant phase with a minor contribution from a higher tc phase s significant remanence unblocking above 580 c suggests that maghemite and or titano maghemite is an important contributor to the remanence in most samples we obtained successful paleofield estimates from remanence unblocked between 440 c and 580 c for 46 of 89 specimens 15 sites at two of three total localities these specimens represent a range of degrees of welding and have variable alteration histories and yet provide a consistent paleofield estimate of 43 0 t 3 2 equivalent to a vadm of 7 8 1022 am2 the most densely welded sections of the tuff have emplacement temperatures inferred to be as high as 660 c suggesting that the remanence may be primarily thermal in origin though a contribution from thermochemical remanence cannot be excluded these results suggest that ignimbrites may constitute a viable material for reliable paleointensity determinations

complex remanent magnetization in the kizilkaya ignimbrite central anatolia implication for paleomagnetic directions abstract pyroclastic flow deposits known as ash flow tuffs or ignimbrites are invaluable materials for paleomagnetic studies with many applications for geological and tectonic purposes however little attention has been paid to evaluating the consistency and reliability of the paleomagnetic data when results are obtained on a single volcanic unit with uneven magnetic mineralogy in this work we investigate this issue by concentrating on the kizilkaya ignimbrite the youngest large volume unit of the neogene ignimbrite sequence of the central anatolian volcanic province in turkey bringing evidence of significant magnetic heterogeneities in ignimbrite deposits magnetic mineralogy susceptibility magnetic remanence coercivity etc and emphasizing the importance of a stratigraphic sampling strategy for this type of volcanic rocks in order to obtain reliable paleomagnetic data six sections were sampled at different stratigraphic heights within the devitrified portion of the ignimbrite isothermal remanence measurements point to low ti titanomagnetite as the main magnetic carrier at all sites at some sites the occurrence of oxidized ti magnetite and hematite is disclosed the bulk susceptibility k m decreases vertically at two out of six sections its value for the topmost samples is commonly one order of magnitude lower than that of the samples at the base in most cases low k m values relate to high coercivity of remanence b cr values which range from 25 to 400 mt and to low s ratios measured at 0 3 t between 0 28 and 0 99 these data point to the occurrence of oxidized magnetic phases we therefore consider the k m parameter as a reliable proxy to check the ignimbrite oxidation stage and to detect the presence of oxidized ti magnetite and hematite within the deposit the characteristic remanent magnetization is determined after stepwise thermal and af demagnetization and clearly isolated by principal component analysis at most sites for these sites the site mean paleomagnetic direction is consistent with data from the literature at a few other sites the remanence is more complex the direction moves along a great circle during demagnetization and no stable end point is reached the occurrence of oxidized ti magnetite or hematite as well as two remanence components with overlapping coercivity and blocking temperature spectra suggest that the kizilkaya ignimbrite acquired first a thermal remanent magnetization and then during the final cooling or a short time later a secondary remanent magnetization component which is interpreted as a crm acquired during post emplacement devitrification processes notwithstanding the kizilkaya ignimbrite is a single cooling unit its magnetic properties suffered substantial variations laterally and vertically within the deposit the kizilkaya case shows that thick pyroclastic deposits should be sampled using a stratigraphic approach at different sites and different stratigraphic heights at each individual sampling location otherwise under sampling may significantly affect the paleomagnetic results when sampling is performed on a short duration or on very poorly preserved deposits we recommend drilling the lower central portion in the most strongly welded and devitrified facies such sampling strategy avoids complications arising from the potential presence of a pervasive secondary crm masking the original chrm

rock magnetism of remagnetized carbonate rocks another look authigenic formation of fine grained magnetite is responsible for widespread chemical remagnetization of many carbonate rocks authigenic magnetite grains dominantly in the super paramagnetic and stable single domain size range also give rise to distinctiverock magnetic prop erties now commonly used as a fingerprint of remagnetization we re examine the basis of this association in terms of magnetic mineralogy and particle size distribution in remagnetized carbon ates having these characteristic rock magnetic properties including wasp waisted hysteresis loops high ratios of anhysteretic remanence to saturation remanence and frequency dependent susceptibility new measurements on samples from the helderberg group allow us to quantify the proportions of superparamagnetic stable single domain and larger grains and to evaluate the mineralogical composition of the remanence carriers the dominant magnetic phase is magnetite like with sufficient impurity to completely suppress the verwey transition particle sizes are extremely fine approximately 75 of the total magnetite content is superparamagnetic at room temperature and almost all of the rest is stable single domain although it has been pro posed that the single domain magnetite in these remagnetized carbonates lacks shape anisotropy and is therefore controlled by cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy we have found strong exper imental evidence that cubic anisotropy is not an important underlying factor in the rock magnetic signature of chemical remagnetization the usefulness of a palaeomagnetic remanence is directly related to the accuracy with which its age is known e g van der voo 1990 primary remanence acquiredduringorverysoonafterrockformation pro videsdirectinformationonpalaeofieldorientationand strengthatthattime thepossibilityofpartialorcom plete remagnetization at a later time complicates palaeomagneticinterpretation ashaslongbeenrecog nized e g graham 1949 every robust palaeomag netic study must therefore include some effort to constrain the ages of identified components of the natural remanent magnetization nrm relative dating with respect to sedimentary processes struc tural tilting or cross cutting relationships is the basis of the classical geometric palaeomagnetic tests fold test and conglomerate test graham 1949 baked contact test everitt clegg 1962 unconformity test kirschvink 1978 the special circumstances required for application of these tests are often not available however or positive test results may providerelativelylooseconstraintsallowingmagneti zation ages that significantly post date the age of the rock formation as a result other evidence although generally more indirect becomes essential in evaluating the age origin and significance of nrm components such evidence commonly includes petrographic observations isotopic andgeo chemical data and rock magnetic characterization by their very existence magnetic overprints provide evidence of some process or event of