origin of maghaemite in chinese loess deposits aeolian or pedogenic maghaemite and magnetite common ferrimagnetic minerals in surficial soils have physical properties which are similar except for the thermal instability of the former utilising this exception a study of thermomagnetic properties has been made to systematically separate these two magnetic components in loess and palaeosol samples from the upper parts of the luochuan section of the central chinese loess plateau this investigation has shown that although maghaemite thermally unstable component occurs in greater amounts in palaeosols ms 0 0187 am2 kg 1 1 1 than in loess units ms 0 0156 am2 kg 1 1 1 in relative terms its contribution to the ferrimagnetic component of magnetisation is higher in the loess units ms 32 2 2 0 than the soils ms 23 5 3 7 such an observation suggests that much of the maghaemite component originates in the aeolian source area with some addition of pedogenic maghaemite occurring in the palaeosols

quantification of the contribution of pedogenic magnetic minerals to magnetic susceptibility of loess and paleosols on chinese loess plateau paleoclimatic implications 1 this study investigates the grain size dependent properties of magnetic minerals in chinese loess samples with an aim to better understand the contribution of pedogenesis to magnetic susceptibility enhancement of the paleosols samples of loess and paleosol were divided into two fractions magnetic extracts and residues by extraction in a weak magnetic field both the raw samples of loess and paleosol i e before magnetic extraction and the samples of residues after magnetic extraction were then separated into five grain size fractions by gravitational settling and centrifugation low field magnetic susceptibility ms and the frequency dependent ms of these samples were measured and samples treated with citrate bicarbonate dithionite cbd to remove the iron oxides were also analyzed for loess samples coarse grains 2 m contribute more than 50 of the magnetic signal the 0 3 m fraction considered to be of pedogenic origin contributes 22 before magnetic extraction or 36 after magnetic extraction of the magnetic signal in loess a different pattern is found in the paleosol samples for these samples the 0 3 m fraction contributes 60 before magnetic extraction or 71 after extraction to the bulk ms in addition 91 of the magnetic signal in paleosol s5 is cbd extractable the cbd technique is able to extract pedogenic superfine grained magnetic particles and coarse dust magnetic particles these results confirm that pedogenesis leads to enhanced ms and helps to quantify the multiple origins of the bulk magnetic material that defines loess and paleosol ms this approach provides a reliable estimate of the contribution of pedogenic magnetic materials to ms our study indicates that multiple methods should be employed in analyzing paleoclimatic changes recorded by ms in the chinese loess paleosol sequences

quantitative estimates of pedogenic ferromagnetic mineral formation in chinese loess and palaeoclimatic implications abstract the quasi continuously deposited loess sediments of the central chinese loess plateau constitute one of the most complete and long lasting records of quaternary palaeoclimate on land much of this record has been uncovered by measurement and interpretation of the magnetic properties of the loess the polarity of natural remanent magnetization has provided absolute age dates by correlation with the geomagnetic polarity time scale magnetic low field susceptibility has been used to reconstruct the cyclic changes of pleistocene palaeoclimates although the origin of the signal is still poorly understood from comparison with the 10 be concentration throughout the sequence we are able to determine the contributions to susceptibility from inherited and authigenic sources for the last 130 ky since the production of authigenic magnetite is directly related to regional precipitation annual palaeoprecipitation rates can be calculated palaeoprecipitation rates similar to present day rates are derived for oxygen isotope stage 5 including the last interglacial in contrast cold periods corresponding to oxygen isotope stages 2 and 4 experienced negligible precipitation the beginning and end of the time interval represented by oxygen isotope stage 3 however was characterized by short episodes when precipitation exceeded the holocene average

partly pedogenic origin of magnetic variations in chinese loess quaternary sequences of interbedded aeolian silts loess and buried soils palaeosols potentially provide one of the best terrestrial records of past climates1 5 magnetic susceptibility variations in loess and palaeosol sequences from china are strongly correlated with climate induced fluctuations of oxygen isotope ratios in deep sea sediments2 4 6 8 as an explanation of this correlation it has been suggested that the recorded variations in magnetic susceptibility depend primarily on the degree of dilution by non magnetic bulk loess constituents of a uniform magnetic assemblage derived from remote but unknown sources6 8 it has also been suggested that such a model involving changes in the accumulation rate of loess superimposed on a constant flux of magnetic particles provides a relative geological timescale through the control of loess deposition by astronomically modulated climate fluctuations7 here we report a preliminary test of this model using rock magnetic properties especially sensitive to variations in magnetic grain size our results show that palaeosols are characterized by much finer magnetic grain size assemblages than are the intervening loess units this suggests that a simple model based on constant magnetic influx and dilution by variable amounts of non magnetic loess is inadequate our magnetic measurements establish the close comparability of the fine grained magnetic minerals in the palaeosol samples to those in contemporary soils and thus point to a partially pedogenic origin for the magnetic mineral assemblages in the palaeosols

relating magnetic susceptibility ms to the simulated thematic mapper tm bands of the chinese loess application of tm image for soil ms mapping on loess plateau 1 magnetic susceptibility ms is a very important physical attribute of the earth s soils and surficial sediments soil containing deposits in the loess plateau of central china offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between soil reflectance and ms in this paper data on ms and diffuse reflectance spectra obtained from seven loess plateau sections were used to establish quantitative relationships between ms and spectral parameters related to remote sensing by integrating the diffuse reflectance values corresponding to thematic mapper tm channels five tm bands were simulated and served as independent variables for a multiple linear regression relating the bands to ms the resulting calibration equation provides good estimates of ms values and has excellent correlation coefficients 0 90 for all the test samples the application of the regression equation for mapping soil ms was performed using the enhanced tm image from northwest part of loess plateau the ms values obtained from tm data are convincing and compare well with the limited field test data the spatial ms variations on the tm image clearly show a decrease toward the northwest and are in a good agreement with the monsoon directions results of this study demonstrate that the surface ms signal in soil can be mapped with data from satellite based remote sensors operating in the visible and near infrared bands the future possibilities of this method in other soil types and climates need to be explored

paleorainfall reconstructions from pedogenic magnetic susceptibility variations in the chinese loess and paleosols the rock magnetic properties of the chinese loess and paleosols constitute a unique and sensitive record of east asian paleoclimate through the quaternary period systematic variations in the concentration and grain size of the magnetic minerals in these sediments have produced systematic variations in the magnetic susceptibility signal which can be easily and rapidly measured at many sites across the loess plateau variations in many other rock magnetic properties can be used to identify the key shifts in ferrimagnetic grain size but magnetic susceptibility alone is sufficiently sensitive to record stadial and interstadial climate stages as well as glaciations and interglaciations past changes in rainfall and monsoon activity for this region are reconstructed from the susceptibility variations the susceptibility record is calibrated using the modern relationship between rainfall and pedogenic susceptibility on the loess plateau our rainfall reconstructions identify enhanced summer monsoonal activity in the chinese loess plateau region in the early holocene and the last interglaciation in the presently semiarid western area of the plateau annual precipitation in interglacial times was up to 80 higher than at present in the more humid southern and eastern areas values were up to 20 higher than today s levels during the last glaciation precipitation decreased across the entire plateau typically by 25 the relationship between pedogenic susceptibility climate and weathering age was examined over the northern hemisphere temperate zone and the observed positive correlation between rainfall and susceptibility indicates that climate rather than soil age is the predominant factor that controls pedogenic susceptibility enhancement in loess soils

loess stratigraphy in central china abstract loess sequences in central china provide a detailed record of climate changes during the last 2 5 million years at least 44 major shifts from glacial to interglacial conditions occurred during this time in china prolonged loess deposition lasting more than 40 millennia occurred eleven times with only four of these intervals in brunhes chron the climate oscillations took place with increased frequency between 2 4 and 0 5 ma compared to the last half million years major shifts toward cooler and drier climates occurred at about 2 4 ma 1 2 ma and 0 5 ma while less pronounced shifts are dated to 1 65 ma 0 8 ma and 0 2 ma three of the last four reversals of the earth s magnetic field whose lithostratigraphic position has been detail are recorded in a glacial deposit the low field magnetic susceptibility of loess and soils which reflects the concentration of ultrafine magnetite is related to the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate the accumulation rate of the magnetite was fairly constant throughout the last 1 2 million years and can serve as a measure of time susceptibility records from localities near xifeng and luochuan located 160 km apart are compared and used to define informal lithostratigraphic units in the loess plateau of china

rock magnetic proxies of climate change in the loess palaeosol sequences of the western loess plateau of china summary results of the first detailed study of the climate proxy record in the loess palaeosol sequence at xining one of the few palaeoclimate sites in the currently arid western loess plateau of china illustrate the importance of making many types of rockmagnetic measurements other than susceptibility a multiparameter approach yielded confirmation that here as elsewhere in the loess plateau the susceptibility enhancement in palaeosols was caused primarily by ultrafine magnetite and maghaemite nevertheless magnetic enhancement was caused not exclusively by changes in relative grain size but also by variations in concentration and mineralogy of the magnetic fraction the effects of concentration variations were removed through normalization of susceptibility and anhysteretic remanence with saturation magnetization and saturation remanence respectively the resulting signal was ascribed more confidently to variation in magnetic grain size which in turn was interpreted as a better proxy of pedogenesis than simple susceptibility variations in magnetic mineralogy were also determined to constrain interpretations further the data were then used to discuss climate history at xining finally results from xining were compared with other western sites and contrasted with eastern sites in summary 1 data is presented from a new loess plateau site which also appears to yield a global climate signal 2 a demonstration is made of a more rock magnetically robust way to separate concentration composition and grain size controls on susceptibility and other magnetic parameters and 3 models are provided for inter regional comparisons of palaeoclimate proxy records

multi scale description of a sahelian synoptic weather system representative of the west african monsoon a reference case of a sahelian weather system observed during the hydrological atmospheric pilot experiment hapex sahel in august 1992 is described from a seasonal viewpoint as well as from synoptic and convective system viewpoints it is shown that the case study is representative of the climatology at all these scales and presents many interacting scales and physical processes at intraseasonal scale the monsoon onset is characterized by an abrupt shift of precipitation together with a latitudinal migration of the african easterly jet aej and convection at the month and day scales the convective activity occurs in an apparent zonal break of the tropical easterly jet the month of august 1992 exhibits intense synoptic activity the vorticity field is characterized by northerly dry and southerly wet components located at 850 hpa on each side of the aej their intraseasonal modulation on a period of 20 to 40 days leads to active and break phases of the synoptic activity around 21 august the 700 hpa vorticity field features the propagation of a typical easterly wave with a westward propagation of a cyclonic circulation followed by an anticyclonic circulation convective activity occurs mainly ahead of the 700 hpa vorticity maximum with the formation of a squall line on air mountains propagating south westward at 15 m s 1 the convective system propagates about twice as fast as the vortex core in contrast with the convection in the european centre for medium range weather forecasts re analysis which stays in phase with the vorticity the squall line corresponds to the largest contributor to the systems passing in august 1992 over the hapex sahel region its environmental conditions and its effects on the atmosphere including the surface parameters are presented copyright 2002 royal meteorological society

paleoclimatic significance of the mineral magnetic record of the chinese loess and paleosols the origins of the magnetic susceptibility variations of the chinese loess and paleosols are explored by scanning and transmission electron microscopy of magnetic extracts and by magnetic modeling of magnetic hysteresis data to provide quantified estimates of the major magnetic components microscopy identifies several distinct size and shape characteristics in the magnetic carriers lithogenic magnetites intact and abraded dominate the coarse grained magnetic fraction the smallest of the coarse grains is 2 i m the remaining magnetic materal is ultrafine in size with two types of magnetite particles present type a particles strongly resemble soil magnetites produced by inorganic precipitation type b particles which occur rarely are probably bacterial in origin quantitative modeling of these magnetic assemblages shows that over 90 of the susceptibility variations is accounted for by the superparamagnetic magnetite component compared to the loess units the paleosols are richer in magnetite particularly of superparamagnetic size and have a threefold higher ratio of magnetite to hematite we identify pedogenic formation of magnetite as the major contributor to the loess magnetic record matching this record against other paleoclimatic records we find an extremely high correlation with the standard 18o record the chinese loess sequences record a very high resolution magnetic stratigraphy directly related to changing climate

the thermal structure of tropical easterly waves abstract a procedure is introduced to derive a general balance condition for synoptic scale disturbances in the tropics the condition describes a balance between the mean pressure and momentum fields and the pressure forcing by cumulus clouds a simple and explicit diagnostic relationship between the mean pressure and momentum fields is obtained when this balance condition is applied to slowly evolving tropical easterly waves this relationship suggests that the thermal structure of tropical easterly waves reflects not so much the distribution of latent heat release by cumulus clouds but the thermal structure required to maintain the dynamic structure of the waves the temperature field of tropical easterly waves calculated from this diagnostic relationship using the dynamic field of the composite easterly wave presented by thompson et al shows reasonably good agreement with observations

characteristics and genesis of maghemite in chinese loess and paleosols mechanism for magnetic susceptibility enhancement in paleosols abstract morphological characteristics and microstructures of magnetic minerals extracted from chinese loess and paleosols were investigated using powder x ray diffraction xrd and high resolution transmission electron microscopy hrtem our results indicate that maghemite in loess paleosol sequences was transformed from magnetite through oxidation of magnetite maghemite transformed from eolian magnetite during chemical weathering has low angle grain boundaries among maghemite nano crystals some nano crystalline maghemites with nanoporous texture resulted from microbe induced precipitation of magnetite or transformation of poorly crystalline ferric fe oxy hydroxides in presence of fe reducing bacteria aggregates of euhedral maghemite nano crystals were transformed from magnetite magnetosomes both microbe induced nanoporous magnetite and microbe produced magnetite magnetosomes are directly related to microbial activities and pedogenesis of the paleosols it is proposed that the formation of nano crystalline maghemite with superparamagnetic property in paleosol results in the enhancement of magnetic susceptibility although the total amount weight percent of magnetic minerals in both paleosol and loess units is similar our results also show that nano crystalline and nanoporous magnetite grains prefer to transform into maghemite in semi arid soil environments instead of hematite although hematite is a thermodynamically stable phase this result also indicates that a decrease in crystal size will increase stability of maghemite it is also inferred that surface energy of maghemite is lower than that of hematite

magnetic properties derived from a loess section at the northern piedmont of tianshan mountains xinjiang china and their paleoenvironmental significance

an integrated view of the 1987 australian monsoon and its mesoscale convective systems i horizontal structure this observational study is organized around three issues the forcing of the monsoon flow by embedded deep convection the thermodynamic conditions that support the convection and the structures of the mesoscale convective systems mcss that constitute much of the deep convection the monsoon convective cloudiness occurred predominantly offshore over the earth s warmest waters week long periods of widespread deep convection caused cycles of monsoon spin up culminating in tropical cyclone formation momentum transports by the convection also created smaller scale vortex pairs in the upper troposphere sounding data suggest that the convection was modulated by low level processes not by large scale deep forced ascent triggering by mesoscale boundary layer cold pool boundaries and coastlines determined specifically where convection occurred while several positive feedbacks acted to keep regional thermodynamic conditions favourable hence monsoon convection once initiated persisted as self exciting superclusters composed at any instant of many distinct mcss the observed mcss all contained areas of deep convection and stratiform precipitation areas stratiform precipitation usually evolved in place from convective cells although precipitation also occasionally fell from overhanging anvils created by upper level shear the mcss within similar synoptic wind environments tended to have similar mesoscale structures this fact reflects the effects illustrated herein of environmental winds upon the relative motions of cold pools which trigger new convective cells and stratiform precipitation areas which evolve from old convective cells

pleistocene climates in china dated by magnetic susceptibility the magnetic susceptibility of loess and interbedded soils in central china varies with the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate the concentration of magnetic minerals in the sediment is inversely proportional to sedimentation rates throughout the brunhes epoch susceptibility measurements combined with the reversal stratigraphy provide a time scale that is independent of astronomic chronology on this scale the susceptibility record closely parallels the oxygen isotope fluctuations in deep sea sediments suggesting a close interdependence of the chinese dust falls the volume of land based ice and global climate

magnetism of chinese loess deposits summary the age of chinese loess deposits has long been disputed biostratigraphical and earlier magnetostratigraphical investigations placed the entire loess formation within the pleistocene and ascertained a maximum loess age of about 1 2 myr a new collection of nearly 500 samples from a natural outcrop and a borehole section near lochuan lat 35 8 n long 109 2 e shaanxi province has been dated by magnetic stratigraphy thermal cleaning of the natural remanent magnetization nrm removes a strong secondary component of viscous origin along the present geomagnetic field which resides largely in magnetite the characteristic nrm component is due to haematite which is thought to be of chemical origin rhythmical intensity variations of nrm and initial susceptibility depend on the loess lithology and may reflect climatic changes during loess deposition the palaeomagnetic results are consistent between the two sections and yield a clearly defined magnetic polarity zonation the brunhes matuyama boundary and the jaramillo subchron have been positively identified in both outcrops at exactly the same stratigraphic level the olduvai subchron has been found in the borehole section which records the entire loess sequence most probably the formation of chinese loess began shortly after the matuyama gauss polarity transition therefore a late pliocene age of about 2 4 myr is assigned to the oldest loess sediments measured

direct imaging of nanoscale magnetic interactions in minerals the magnetic microstructure of a natural finely exsolved intergrowth of submicron magnetite blocks in an ulvospinel matrix is characterized by using off axis electron holography in the transmission electron microscope single domain and vortex states in individual blocks as well as magnetostatic interaction fields between them are imaged at a spatial resolution approaching the nanometer scale the images reveal an extremely complicated magnetic structure dominated by the shapes of the blocks and magnetostatic interactions magnetic superstates in which clusters of magnetite blocks act collectively to form vortex and multidomain states that have zero net magnetization are observed directly

variation of soil magnetism across the russian steppe its significance for use of soil magnetism as a palaeorainfall proxy abstract modern soils across the chinese loess plateau exhibit strong but disputed correlation between their pedogenic magnetic content and annual rainfall a soil magnetism rainfall transfer function could provide a quantitative proxy of quaternary rainfall for this region however some argue that magnetic dilution through spatially varying fluxes of weakly magnetic dust controls the soil magnetic properties here we test the soil magnetism rainfall couple by examining 22 russian steppe soils free of present dust accumulation across a climatic transect from the semi arid caspian region to the more humid caucasus the soils display systematic increases in topsoil ferrimagnetic concentrations with the exception of climate and its co variant vegetation soil forming factors are essentially constant across this stable area hence the soil magnetic variations dominantly reflect climate and from statistical analysis principally rainfall further the russian steppe magnetic rainfall relationship matches that observed for the chinese loess plateau these independent data thus substantiate the soil magnetism rainfall climofunction and by inference eliminate dust dilution as a significant magnetic factor

quantitative estimates of palaeoprecipitation at xifeng in the loess plateau of china abstract using10be recent studies heller et al 1993 beer et al 1993 have tried to reconstruct palaeoclimatic records by separating the secondary pedogenic and primary aeolian detrital contributions to the magnetic susceptibility of chinese loess here we use a technique which monitors the temperature dependence of magnetic remanence to estimate the magnetisation and relative contribution of the superparamagnetic sp single domain sd and multidomain md ferrimagnetic components in the xifeng loess section on the assumption that the sp ferrimagnetic component is dominantly of pedogenic origin the magnetisation of this component has also been determined for samples taken from the topmost palaeosol s0 at six sites over the loess plateau and directly correlated with present day precipitation at these sites this correlation is then used to estimate quantitatively palaeoprecipitation for the topmost 16 m of the xifeng section which covers about the last 140 000 years the data indicate a considerably reduced precipitation during the glacial loess forming periods and a significantly higher level of precipitation than today during the last interglacial period

magnetic comparison of abiogenic and biogenic alteration products of lepidocrocite abstract lepidocrocite is a potentially important fe bearing precursor phase for the production of nanoscale fe oxide particles in the environment we present a detailed magnetic characterization of various alteration products of lepidocrocite resulting from thermal dehydroxylation reactions and bacterially induced bioreduction and remineralization accompanied by characterization with x ray diffraction xrd and transmission electron microscopy dehydroxylation during annealing at moderate temperatures produces a topotactic transformation from lepidocrocite to maghemite when heated in an oxidizing atmosphere or to magnetite when heated in a reducing atmosphere the abiotic fe oxide products form an oriented framework of strongly interacting superparamagnetic crystallites and are characterized by a distinctive porous nanostructure observed by electron microscopy lepidocrocite bioreduction by the iron reducing bacterium shewanella putrefaciens atcc 8071 produces nanoscale particles of a strongly magnetic phase this fe ii bearing mineral produced by bioreduction is highly crystalline and euhedral in shape with a broad grain size distribution and is indicated by magnetic and xrd measurements to be a cation excess magnetite we highlight the distinguishing microscopic characteristics of magnetite from both abiotic and bacterially induced mineralization that should allow them to be identified in natural settings moreover both mechanisms of alteration represent potential pathways for the direct formation of strongly magnetic fine grained fe oxide particles in sedimentary environments

influence of the substorm current wedge on the dst index one of the major questions confronting researchers studying the nature of the solar terrestrial interaction centers around whether or not the substorm expansive phase has any causal effect on the growth of the storm time ring current this question is often addressed by using the dst index as a proxy for the storm time ring current and inspecting the main phase growth of dst in the context of the substorm expansive phases which occur in the same time frame as the ring current growth in the past it has been assumed that the magnetic effects of the substorm current wedge have little influence on the dst index because the current wedge is an asymmetric current system while dst is supposed to reflect changes in the symmetric component of the ring current in this paper we shall show that the substorm current wedge can have a significant effect on the present dst index primarily as a consequence of the fact that only four stations are presently used to formulate the index calculations are made assuming the instantaneous magnitude of the wedge current is constant at 1 ma hourly values of dst may be as much as 50 smaller than those presented here because of variation of the wedge current over the hour we shall show how the effect of the current wedge depends on the ut of the expansive phase onset the angular extent of the current wedge and the locale of the closure current in the magnetosphere the fact that the substorm current wedge is a conjugate phenomenon has an important influence on the magnitude of the expansive phase effect in the dst index

magnetic stratigraphy of chinese loess as a record of natural fires magnetic susceptibility records of paleosols and loess show high correlation with oxygen isotope stratigraphy of ocean sediments kukla 1987 providing a global paleoclimatic record different models have been put forth to explain the nature and cause of susceptibility variations but consensus has not yet been achieved our low temperature studies reveal a secondary magnetite component in paleosols that is characterized by a higher verwey transition 115k than that for the magnetite 100 k in unaltered loess the same shift in the verwey transition can be achieved by heating and cooling loess samples this is consistent with a new hypothesis that the magnetic signal from paleosols may be produced by natural fires in the past natural fire intensity is sensitive to the amount of annual precipitation so that increased fire induced susceptibilities should reflect an increase in the humidity of regional climate

spatial and temporal reconstructions of changes in the asian palaeomonsoon a new mineral magnetic approach abstract a new quantitative approach is proposed for estimating palaeoprecipitation across the chinese loess plateau at present there is a strong rainfall gradient across the plateau from 300 mm yr in the near desert conditions in the northwest to over 750 mm yr in the southeast just 700 km distant we find that the concentration of ferrimagnetic iron oxide minerals in nine modern soil types represented by 37 individual soil profiles is strongly correlated with this contemporary rainfall gradient the ferrimagnetic concentration rises along this gradient from 0 01 in the northwest to over 0 2 in the southeast the nine modern soil types have been used in the construction of a rainfall vs magnetic susceptibility least squares regression climofunction past variations of loess soil iron oxide content are easily established through magnetic susceptibility measurements and so can be used to reconstruct the rainfall of former interglacial and glacial periods the physical and pedological basis of the rainfall vs susceptibility relationship is discussed and potential limitations of our rainfall reconstruction method are explored our palaeoclimate reconstructions indicate dramatic changes in rainfall due to variations in the structure of the asian monsoon the rainfall variations are about four times greater than has been suggested for this region by atmospheric general circulation modelling our data indicate increased rainfall throughout central china both in interglacial periods and in the early holocene the increases in monsoonal rain were particularly pronounced at our westernmost sites adjacent to the northeastern edge of the tibetan plateau in contrast for glacial periods a reduction in rainfall is found across the whole loess area with the greatest decreases in the southeast

nanoscale haematite ilmenite lamellae in massive ilmenite rock an example of lamellar magnetism with implications for planetary magnetic anomalies summary massive nearly pure haemo ilmenite layers from historic ore deposits in rogaland norway contain very few silicates or other oxides and typically produce remanence dominated magnetic anomalies these rocks are ideal for evaluating the magnetic properties of fine exsolution intergrowths and the larger titanohaematite lamellae in the host ilmenite grains a typical bulk composition ilm 84 exsolved at high temperature to produce host ilmenite ilm 94 and micron sized haematite lamellae ilm 23 as measured by electron microprobe emp subsequent undercooling of the ilmenite and the micron scale haematite lamellae led to metastable nucleation of nanoscale lamellae down to unit cell scale leaving depleted hosts between lamellae with compositions of ilm 98 and ilm 15 13 as measured by tem edx samples have high coercivities and average nrm values of 25 a m 1 which typically show 2 per cent saturation in the nrm state the amount of magnetization in these samples is too high to be solely accounted for by a spin canted af moment in the haematite based on monte carlo simulations of haematite ilmenite interfaces at the atomic scale and on measured rock magnetic properties we predict that the magnetization is carried by a ferrimagnetic substructure produced at the contacts of the very fine scale titanohaematite and ilmenite exsolution lamellae

pedogenesis and paleoclimate interpretation of the magnetic susceptibility record of chinese loess paleosol sequences in the chinese loess paleosol sequences from luochuan haanxi province china variations in the magnetic susceptibility have been accepted as an excellent proxy for paleoclimate and the standard interpretation is that climatic processes have enhanced the magnetic susceptibility of the paleosols beyond the base line level of the loess by using mineral magnetic properties and a soil chemistry extraction procedure we show that most of the magnetic susceptibility signal in both the paleosols and the loess is due to pedogenesis in effect loess deposition and pedogenesis are competing processes at all times and the presence of a paleosol simply indicates that the latter process was predominant these results imply that any interpretation of the paleoclimate record of loess paleosol sequences must recognize the pedogenic nature of the magnetic susceptibility signal and that the focus of future research must be on the critical role of climate in the development of the paleosols

the role of maghemite in the enhancement of magnetic signal in the chinese loess paleosol sequence an extensive rock magnetic study combined with citrate bicarbonate dithionite treatment we have conducted a rock magnetic study of selected chinese loess samples before and after citrate bicarbonate dithionite cbd treatment our study is more extensive than previous ones and reveals new details of the magnetic carriers which are related to paleoclimate change three pairs of paleosol s1 the top paleosol layer in the lishi formation and loess l2 underlying s1 from three localities xining xifeng and jixian were investigated by using a variety of magnetic methods after the paleosols were treated with cbd which removes all maghemite grains and the finest grains of magnetite magnetic susceptibility decreased from 77 10 8 to 20 10 8 m3 kg in xining from 165 10 8 to 30 10 8 m3 kg in xifeng and from 180 10 8 to 25 10 8 m3 kg in jixian anhysteretic remanent magnetizations arm were reduced to less than one tenth of the original values in the three sites and saturation magnetization js decreased by about 60 in xining and 70 in xifeng and jixian these reduced values in the paleosols after cbd treatment are similar to those of the corresponding underlying loess samples which however did not show significant decrease after cbd treatment room temperature frequency dependence of susceptibility high temperature dependence of susceptibility and low temperature sirm demagnetization of the paleosol and loess samples before and after cbd treatment confirm that in addition to superparamagnetic sp particles magnetite and or maghemite the cbd removable magnetic carriers also include maghemite of grain sizes larger than sp

palaeoclimatic and sedimentary history from magnetic susceptibility of loess in china the magnetostratigraphic age of the oldest loess sediments in the central chinese loess plateau investigated so far has recently been placed at ca 2 4 million years b p thus glaciations in central asia which are believed to provide the detritus for the formation of chinese loess commenced at the same time as the first ice rafted debris sank into the ocean basins of the northern hemisphere shackleton et al 1984 lithologic palaeontologic geochemical and especially rock magnetic variations throughout the loess column are indicative of palaeoclimatic fluctuations during loess deposition the variations of magnetic low field susceptibility in loess closely resemble those of the marine oxygen isotope record shackleton and opdyke 1976 and establish for the first time a continuous record of the pleistocene glacial and interglacial stages in a continental section spectral analysis of the rock magnetic time series indicates slow apparent sedimentation during interglacial periods which are characterized mainly by calcium dissolution and related compaction of the soils variable aeolic sediment influx as well as erosion and or polygenetic soil formation may also strongly influence the sedimentary history

the magnetic properties of particle sized samples from the luo chuan loess section evidence for pedogenesis abstract measurements of magnetic susceptibility and of laboratory remanences have been carried out on particle size fractions of loess and palaeosol samples from luo chuan china they show that the sub micron clay fraction of the palaeosol is greatly enriched in fine grained

modification of the magnetic mineralogy in basalts due to fluid rock interactions in a high temperature geothermal system krafla iceland summary active high temperature 150 c geothermal areas like the krafla caldera ne iceland often show distinct magnetic lows in aeromagnetic anomaly maps suggesting a destruction of magnetic minerals by hydrothermal activity the main alteration processes in such an environment are low temperature oxidation 350 c maghemitization and fluid rock interactions we investigated the rock magnetic properties natural remanent magnetization nrm magnetic susceptibility and their temperature and field variation and the mineralogy using x ray diffraction microscopic methods and electron microprobe analyses of two drill cores kh1 and kh3 from the rim of the krafla caldera the drill cores have distinctly lower nrm values average 3 a m 1 compared to younger surface basalts average 20 a m 1 along with a large variation in magnetic susceptibility 1 3 10 7 4 9 10 5 m3 kg 1 the secondary mineral assemblage sulphides sphene rutile and chlorite indicates an alteration within the chlorite smectite zone for both cores without depth zoning optical miscroscopy in combination with the bitter technique and backscatter electron microscopy along with the thermomagnetic analyses allow distinguishing two different magnetomineralogical groups of titanomaghemite 1 titanomaghemite with intermediate titanium concentration and probably high vacancy concentration and 2 titanomaghemite with low titanium concentration and low vacancy concentration the mineral assemblages textures and magnetic properties deduced from the mentioned magnetic measurements indicate two stage transformation mechanism 1 dissolution of titanium at low ph under oxidizing conditions the ulvospinel component of titanomagnetite and ilmenite forms rutile or sphene and fe2 migrates out of the spinel lattice forming titanomaghemite 2 formation of pyrite and dissolution of remaining titanomaghemite under reducing and acidic conditions the latter mechanism produces ghost textures all titanomaghemite is transformed and only their former grain shapes are preserved with only paramagnetic minerals left and ferrimagnetic minerals nearly dissolved this mechanism could explain the significant magnetization loss which is seen in many local magnetic anomaly lows within the oceanic crust and volcanic islands like iceland or hawaii the production of nanoporous textures in titanomaghemites is suggested as a mechanism for the enhancement of the magnetic susceptibility values related to the hydrothermal alteration of krafla

the magnetism and microstructure of pulverized titanomagnetite fe2 4ti0 6o4 the effect of annealing maghemitization and inversion abstract titanomagnetite fe 2 4 ti 0 6 o 4 pulverized in a ball mill to make the material readily maghemitize on the laboratory time scale has been used as an analogue for the magnetic mineral of submarine basalts the ball milling in addition to reducing particle size produces an internal nanocrystalline structure annealing at high enough temperature 600 c 800 c removes the nanocrystalline structure but the titanomagnetite crystals carry a relic of ball milling induced non stoichiometry which contributes to magnetic strain anisotropy despite this complication the coercive force of the annealed material is close to the average coercive force of pillow basalts and should provide an improved synthetic analogue for laboratory studies inspired by the magnetism and mineralogy of the submarine crust the nanocrystalline structure persists in maghemitized pulverized titanomagnetite and the magnetization process parameters are consistent with an increasing importance of thermal fluctuations as maghemitization proceeds in the transformations produced by annealing maghemitization and inversion the spinel component immediately post transformation has composition and or concentration inherited from the pre transformation spinel and does not correspond to equilibrium later re equilibration of the coexisting phases accelerated in the laboratory by elevated temperature leads to diminution of the spinel component in favour of more stable phases unlike the inversion of maghemite to haematite the inversion product of titanomaghemite is not a unique assemblage of phases