Establishment of a Facility: Institute for Rock Magnetism

这项提案为在明尼苏达大学建立一个岩石磁学研究所提供了部分资金。研究所将为内部和来访的岩石磁学和古磁学研究人员提供岩石及其组成矿物磁性表征所需的技术支持和先进设备。基于磁光学和电子光学的10 nm尺度单粒原位磁化波动图的新方法，以及合成粒度和内部应变可控的超细磁性矿物的新技术，为岩石磁学的复兴创造了条件。新的推力使之成为可能，目的是为了更好地了解岩石在地质时期获得和保持磁化的方式。这种新认识的好处包括解释地球磁场如何反转其极性，提高根据古代地磁场破译岩石磁化的能力，并由此重建过去大陆地块的全球变化。

This proposal provides partial funding to create an Institute for Rock Magnetism at the University of Minnesota. The Institute will provide technical support and advanced equipment needed for the magnetic characterization of rocks and their constituent minerals for in-house and visiting rock-magnetism and paleomagnetism researchers. New methods based on magneto-optics and electron-optics for mapping magnetization fluctuations at a scale of 10 nm in single, in-situ, grains, and new techniques for synthesis of ultrafine magnetic minerals of controlled grainsize and internal strain have created the conditions for a renaissance in rock magnetism. The new thrust made possible is aimed at better understanding of the ways in which rocks acquire and retain their magnetization through geologic time. The benefits of such new understanding ranges from explaining how the earth's magnetic field reverses its polarity to an improved ability to decipher the magnetization of rocks in terms of ancient geomagnetic fields and the resulting reconstructions of past global changes in continental land masses.