Continuous Geomagnetic Field Records During Snowball Earth: Critical Tests of Cryogenian Uniformitarianism

与地球历史上更年轻的时期相比，新元古代的时间简直是怪异的，因为这个时代的沉积物包含了不寻常或非凡的气候，地球化学和地质事件的证据。 地球物理学上特别感兴趣的是所有大陆上新元古代晚期的地层间隔，这些地层间隔显示了冰川在低纬度碳酸盐台地上移动的确凿岩性证据，这种情况在过去5亿年中显然没有发生过。这场“雪球地球”气候灾难在很大程度上依赖于对南澳新元古代晚期冰川沉积物的古地磁研究，这些研究反复表明，低古纬度磁化作用包裹在约10 m厚的韵律层状“潮汐”存款中所谓的同沉积褶皱周围，在较厚的多环境冰川沉积物中经常反转极性，并先于构造褶皱。最近的古地磁调查同位素异常的“帽”碳酸盐，沉积在最后的雪球冰消期，记录了多次逆转，这表明令人惊讶的频繁的地磁场变化和/或意外的长时间的冰消期的时间尺度。 无论哪种方式，新元古代地球系统及其对气候变化强迫的反应似乎与我们对现代全球变化的理解有着根本的不同。我们正在从南澳的雪球地球沉积序列的关键间隔产生两个可能连续的地磁场记录，以测试这些单位现有的，令人惊讶的古地磁记录的准确性。 在一个被称为“Elatina rhythmites”的单元中，毫米级的沙子和淤泥对被认为代表半日潮。 一个积极的“同沉积褶皱”的测试Elatina韵律层建立了一个明显的沉积年龄的磁化，所以毫米尺度的磁性地层学通过~10米的韵律层应该恢复一个连续的~60年的地磁场记录适合回答一个或多个以下问题：1）Elatina韵律层真的半日？ 通过韵律岩部分的任何类似地磁长期变化的信号似乎都排除了这种可能性，并主张一个更长的，也许是每年一次的层压周期。2)著名的，低古纬度古地磁结果Elatina韵律岩真的同沉积起源？ 对所谓的“同沉积褶皱”进行详细的沉积学和古地磁学调查，将解决韵律岩磁化的成岩起源的遥远的替代假设。3)雪球冰期的地磁场是不是异常微弱？ 这种情况可以解释在埃拉蒂纳冰川沉积物和覆盖在其上的冰消帽碳酸盐中异常频繁的地磁反转。 如果对1）和2）的回答证明磁化是在短时间尺度上沉积的，那么对Elatina rhythmites的组构分析可以证明部分异常信号来自无效的磁化过程，可能与弱地磁场有关。最后，我们还从Nuccaleena帽白云岩中获得了约50，000 - 500，000年的几乎连续的地磁场记录，该白云岩是冰消期碳酸盐的后期Elatina冰川沉积物。 在这个单元中，预期的地磁长期变化信号的结构也应该解决地球新元古代地磁场的强度和特征是否与现代相似。雪球地球的神秘和古地磁学的“魔力”值得更广泛的公众传播。 我们正在与澳大利亚同事合作，制作一个国际巡回博物馆展览，展出一些非常有趣的-视觉上令人惊叹的-岩石。 我们还为国家地理电视纪录片提供咨询，该纪录片专注于雪球地球的地球历史故事以及地质学家和古地磁学家阅读古代岩石记录的科学方法。

Neoproterozoic time is simply weird compared to younger intervals of Earth History, as sediments of this age contain evidence for unusual or extraordinary climatic, biogeochemical, and geological events. Of particular geophysical interest are the late Neoproterozoic stratigraphic intervals on all continents that show firm lithologic evidence of glaciers marching over low-latitude carbonate platforms, a situation that clearly has not happened in the past 500 million years. This "Snowball Earth" climate catastrophe relies heavily on paleomagnetic studies of late Neoproterozoic glacial sediments in South Australia, which have shown repeatedly that low-paleolatitude magnetization wraps around purported syn-sedimentary folds in a ~10 m thick, rhythmic-laminated "tidal" deposit, reverses polarity frequently in thicker, multi-environment glacial deposits, and pre-dates tectonic folding. Recent paleomagnetic investigations of isotopically-anomalous "cap" carbonates, deposited during final Snowball deglaciation, have documented multiple reversals, suggesting surprisingly frequent geomagnetic field changes and/or unexpectedly long deglacial timescales. Either way, something about the Neoproterozoic Earth system and its response to climate change forcing seems to have been fundamentally different from our understanding of modern global change. We are producing two possibly continuous geomagnetic field records from critical intervals of South Australia's Snowball Earth sedimentary succession to test the veracity of the existing, surprising paleomagnetic records from those units. In a unit known as "Elatina rhythmites," millimeter-scale sand and silt couplets are considered to represent semi-diurnal tides. A positive "syn-sedimentary fold" test on Elatina rhythmites establishes an apparently depositional age of magnetization, so millimeter-scale magnetostratigraphy through ~10 m of rhythmites should recover a continuous ~60-year geomagnetic field record suitable for answering one or more of the following questions: 1) Are Elatina rhythmite laminations genuinely semi-diurnal? Any signal resembling geomagnetic secular variation through the rhythmite section would seem to preclude this possibility and argue for a longer, perhaps annual, lamination periodicity. 2) Is the famous, low-paleolatitude paleomagnetic result for Elatina rhythmites genuinely syn-depositional in origin? Detailed sedimentologic and paleomagnetic investigation of purported "syn-sedimentary folds" would address remote alternative hypotheses of diagenetic origin for rhythmite magnetization. 3) Was the geomagnetic field during Snowball glaciation anomalously weak? Such a scenario could explain unusually frequent geomagnetic reversals in Elatina glacial deposits and in the overlying, deglacial cap carbonate. If answers to 1) and 2) proved magnetization to be depositional on a short timescale, then fabric analysis of Elatina rhythmites could prove that part of the anomalous signal derives from inefficient magnetization processes, possibly linked to a weak geomagnetic field. Finally, we are also producing a ~50,000 - 500,000-year, nearly continuous geomagnetic field record from Nuccaleena cap dolostone, the deglacial carbonate postdating Elatina glacial deposits. The structure of an expected geomagnetic secular variation signal in this unit should also address whether or not the strength and character of Earth's Neoproterozoic geomagnetic field was similar to that of the modern Era. The mystery of Snowball Earth, and the "magic" of paleomagnetism merit wider public communication. We are collaborating with Australian colleagues to produce an international, traveling museum exhibit exhibiting some of these exceptionally interesting -- and visually stunning -- rocks. We are also advising a National Geographic TV documentary focused on the Earth history story of Snowball Earth and on the scientific method by which geologists and paleomagnetists read the ancient rock record.