SGER: Rock Magnetism and Paleomagnetism of Corals From Pacific Volcanic Islands: A Feasability Study

从古地磁学的早期开始，获得观测前地磁场的高分辨率古地磁记录的可能性一直是研究人员的目标。珊瑚提供了这种记录的可能性。这些记录将产生巨大的影响，因为至少在方向上，甚至可能在相对强度上，它们都像天文台的记录。在数万年的短时间内，我们可以获得有日期的珊瑚记录，我们可以有详细的现场记录。珊瑚的岩石磁性已经被用于环境目的，这似乎是珊瑚磁性的另一种可能的应用。例如，它可能被证明是确定火山活动序列的一种极好的方法，几年前，人们曾尝试对巴哈马群岛的珊瑚进行初步研究，但由于当时仪器的灵敏度有限，再加上珊瑚可能不是来自火山岛，因此无法获得令人满意的古地磁记录。最近，对夏威夷群岛、所罗门群岛和新爱尔兰的珊瑚进行了研究。这些都表明，现代仪器提供了成功测量这些火山环境中珊瑚的古地磁记录的可能性。接下来的步骤是调查记录的保真度和携带不同类型珊瑚记录的磁性材料，这将通过SGER奖来完成。

The possibility of getting high-resolution paleomagnetic records of the geomagnetic field from pre-observatory times has been an aim of researchers since the early days of paleomagnetism. Corals afford the possibility of such records. These records would have an enormous impact because at least in direction and even possibly in relative intensity they would be like observatory records. For short periods of time throughout the tens of thousands of years for which dated coral records are available we could have detailed records of the field. The rock magnetic properties of corals have already been used for environmental purposes and this appears to be another possible application of coral magnetism. For example, it may prove an excellent method of dating sequences of volcanic activity.Several years ago, preliminary studies with corals from the Bahamas were attempted, but the combination of the sensitivity limits of instruments at that time and probably the unfortunate choice of corals that were not from volcanic islands precluded satisfactory paleomagnetic records. Recently, studies of corals from the Hawaiian Islands, from the Solomon Islands and from New Ireland have been undertaken. These have demonstrated that modern instrumentation provides the possibility of successful measurement of the paleomagnetic record of corals from these volcanic environments. The next steps are to investigate the fidelity of the records and the magnetic material that carries these records from different types of corals, which will be accomplished with this SGER award.