Acquisition of Equipment for Paleomagnetic Research

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9614879 Tauxe This grant provides $118,555 as partial support of the costs of acquiring equipment for the Paleomagnetic Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Specifically, the equipment to be purchased will include a system upgrade for their 2-G enterprises Model 760 superconducting rock magnetometer (SRM) with DC SQUIDS and a rebuilt cryocooler and new compressor, degaussing system electronics and coils and an ARM magnetizer for alternating field experiments, and an automatic sample handler. Additional equipment to be purchased and/or fabricated "in-house" includes a low temperature cryostat for their Micromag alternating field gradient magnetometer (AFGM), a furnace for thermal demagnetization studies, a Kappabridge and other ancillary laboratory equipment. This equipment will allow paleomagnetists at SIO to conduct further research on the relative paleointensity recorded in very weakly magnetized marine sediments from the Ontong-Java Plateau and from sections of the Cretaceous Normal Superchron, Umbria Italy. Additional studies that will be enhanced by the capabilities of the new equipment will include but are not limited to, records of the global paleointensity of the Earth's magnetic field from submarine basaltic glass collected from DSDP/ODP drill sites into basement, analyses of the physical properties of geologic materials from examination of hysteresis loop behavior over a wide range of temperatures, thermal demagnetization studies of lava flows from the Azores and the Canary Islands to determine paleosecular variation of the geomagnetic field since the early Pliocene and rock magnetic characterization of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) from the southern East Pacific Mid-Ocean Ridge (EPR) to aid in explanation of a widespread occurrence of a short-wavelength high in sea-surface magnetic anomalies over ridge axes, termed the Central Anomaly Magnetic High (CAMH). ***