Paleomagnetic Record of a Geomagnetic Field Reversal from Late Miocene Mafic Intrusions, Southern Nevada

Late Miocene (about 8.65 million years ago) mafic intrusions and lava flows along with remagnetized host rocks from Paiute Ridge, southern Nevada, provide a high-quality paleomagnetic record of a geomagnetic field reversal. These rocks yield thermoremanent magnetizations with declinations of 227° to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 266; no. 5184; pp. 412 - 416
Main Authors Ratcliff, Catherine D., Geissman, John W., Perry, Frank V., Crowe, Bruce M., Zeitler, Peter K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 21.10.1994
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Cooling
Demagnetization
Earth
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Geology, Stratigraphic
Geomagnetic fields
Geomagnetic reversals
Geophysics: general, magnetic, electric and thermic methods and properties
Internal geophysics
Lava flows
Lopoliths
Magnetic fields
Magnetization
Miocene
Miocene Epoch
Paleomagnetism
Rocks
Stratigraphy
Tuff
United States
North America
Nevada
reversals
Neogene
magnetostratigraphy
Tertiary
volcanic rocks
magnetic declination
igneous rocks
geomagnetic field
mafic composition
trajectory
polar wandering
intrusions
pole positions
upper Miocene
paleomagnetism
lava flows
magnetic inclination
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Summary:Late Miocene (about 8.65 million years ago) mafic intrusions and lava flows along with remagnetized host rocks from Paiute Ridge, southern Nevada, provide a high-quality paleomagnetic record of a geomagnetic field reversal. These rocks yield thermoremanent magnetizations with declinations of 227° to 310° and inclinations of -7° to 49°, defining a reasonably continuous virtual geomagnetic pole path over west-central Pacific longitudes. Conductive cooling estimates for the intrusions suggest that this field transition, and mafic magmatism, lasted only a few hundred years. Because this record comes principally from intrusive rocks, rather than sediments or lavas, it is important in demonstrating the longitudinal confinement of the geomagnetic field during a reversal.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.266.5184.412