Early Career: acquisition of a superconducting rock magnetometer with automated sample handling and rock magnetic characterization for paleomagnetism research

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This award will provide funding to acquire a sensitive instrument to measure magnet properties of rocks in the paleomagnetism laboratory at Rutgers University. The instrumentation will be used to promote progress in the earth sciences. This new instrumentation will support the laboratory development and research program of a female, early-career researcher. Access to the instrumentation will also support the training of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. This system will be the only one of its kind in operation in the entire Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.Paleomagnetic studies provide a powerful window into the histories of Earth and other planetary bodies. As rocks form, they record magnetizations which can be measured in the laboratory to infer both the orientation and, in many cases, the intensity of the ambient field at the time of formation. The new system will be used to address a diversity of problems in the earth and planetary sciences including (1) paleolatitude studies to test different tectonic models for India-Eurasia convergence during the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, (2) determining the magnetic effects of hypervelocity impact events on target rocks to guide the interpretation of the magnetizations of cratered planetary surfaces, and (3) constraining the physical processes that generated ancient dynamo magnetic fields on other planetary bodies.