Collaborative Research: Geomagnetic Field as Recorded in the Mt Erebus Volcanic Province: Key to Field Structure at High Southern Latitudes

该奖项由极地项目办公室的南极地质和地球物理项目提供，支持一个研究过去500万年地球磁场的项目，以测试地球的地磁发电机模型。古地磁数据（从岩石中获得的古地磁场方向）在地球的各种地球物理研究中起着重要作用，包括板块构造重建、磁地层学和古地磁场行为的研究（称为古地磁）。在过去的四十年里，许多古地磁研究的关键假设是，古磁场的平均方向对应于地心轴向偶极子（GAD）（类似于地球中心的棒状磁铁）产生的方向，而古倾角（岩石磁方向的倾斜）提供了足够精确的数据，使它们能够用于板块重建。最近对时间平均场模型的基础数据的重新检查表明，现有数据库中最明显的缺陷是缺乏高质量的数据，包括来自高纬度地区的古强度信息。该项目将在埃里伯斯火山省（南极洲）的合适地点进行采样和实验室计划，这将产生来自南部高纬度地区的高质量数据，这些数据对于增强对时间平均场及其长期变化的理解至关重要。

This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a project to investigate Earth's magnetic field over the past 5 million years in order to test models of Earth's geomagnetic dynamo. Paleomagnetic data (directions of ancient geomagnetic fields obtained from rocks) play an important role in a variety of geophysical studies of the Earth, including plate tectonic reconstructions, magnetostratigraphy, and studies of the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field (which is called paleo-geomagnetism). Over the past four decades the key assumption in many paleomagnetic studies has been that the average direction of the paleomagnetic field corresponds to one that would have been produced by a geocentric axial dipole (GAD) (analogous to a bar magnet at the center of the Earth), and that paleoinclinations (the dip of magnetic directions from rocks) provide data of sufficient accuracy to enable their use in plate reconstructions. A recent re-examination of the fundamental data underlying models of the time averaged field has shown that the most glaring deficiency in the existing data base is a dearth of high quality data, including paleointensity information, from high latitudes. This project will undertake a sampling and laboratory program on suitable sites from the Mt. Erebus Volcanic Province (Antarctica) that will produce the quality data from high southern latitudes that are essential to an enhanced understanding of the time averaged field and its long term variations.