Abstract
A paleointensity study using the Thellier’s method was made on Tertiary basaltic rocks in Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province, northeastern China. K-Ar ages were previously reported for all the rocks, which range around 6–8 Ma and 28–32 Ma. Sample selection was based on total quality of remanence behavior and rock magnetism. High stability to AF and thermal demagnetization, small difference between the heating and cooling curves of magnetic susceptibility vs. temperature measurements, and PSD to SD characteristics in the Day plot of the hysteresis parameters were required. Experiments in vacuum using Coe’s procedure were applied to 54 specimens from nine flows. Experiments were successful for 34 specimens, giving seven flow mean paleointensities. Excluding two flow means (in one flow, only two specimens from the same sample survived and in the other, the within-site error amounts to 42%) the final success rate was 29 out of 54 (54%), which is not low. The obtained results range from 54 to 65 μT, except for one lava which gave 23 μT. These results indicate that although the paleointensity in the Tertiary was generally smaller than the present-day value, there were large fluctuations in the dipole moment, and paleointensities of the present-day level were often attained.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Biggin, A. J. and D. N. Thomas, Analysis of long-term variations in the geomagnetic poloidal field intensity and evaluation of their relationship with global geodynamics, Geophys. J. Int., 152, 392–415, 2003.
Bogue, S. W., Geomagnetic field behavior before and after the Kauai reverse-normal polarity transition, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 447–461, 2001.
Carvallo, C., Ö. Özdemir, and D. J. Dunlop, Palaeointensity determinations, palaeodirections and magnetic properties of basalts from the Emperor seamounts, Geophys. J. Int., 156, 29–38, 2004.
Chauvin, A., P. Roperch, and S. Levi, Reliability of geomagnetic paleointensity data: the effects of the NRM fraction and concave-up behavior on paleointensity determinations by the Thellier method, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 150, 265–286, 2005.
Cheng, H., Y. Tatsumi, and K. Ishizaka, Temporal and spatial distribution of Cenozoic basalts in eastern China, Reports on Earth Science, Department of General Education, Kyoto University, 24, December, 1–14, 1990 (in Japanese).
Coe, R. S., S. Grommé, and E. A. Mankinen, Geomagnetic paleointensities from radiocarbon-dated lava flows on Hawaii and the question of the Pacific nondipole low, J. Geophys. Res., 83, 1740–1756, 1978.
Day, R., M. Fuller, and V. A. Schmidt, Hysteresis properties of titanomagnetites: grain-size and compositional dependence, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 13, 260–267, 1977.
Glen, J. M. G., J.-P. Valet, V. Soler, P. R. Renne, and A. Elmaleh, A Neogene geomagnetic polarity transition from lavas of the Canary Islands, Spain: episodic volcanism and/or metastable transitional fields?, Geophys. J. Int., 154, 426–440, 2003.
Goguitchaichvili, A., L. Alva-Valdivia, J. Rosas-Elguera, J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J. A. Gonzalez, J. Morales, and J. Sole, An integrated pale-omagnetic study of Rio Grande de Santiago volcanic succession (trans-Mexican volcanic belt): revisited, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 130, 175–194, 2002.
Heller, R., R. T. Merrill, and P. L. McFadden, The two states of paleomagnetic field intensities for the past 320 million years, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 135, 211–223, 2003.
Herrero-Bervera, E. and J.-P. Valet, Absolute paleointensity and reversal records from the Waianae sequence (Oahu, Hawai, USA), Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 234, 279–296, 2005.
Hill, M. J., J. Shaw, and E. Herrero-Bervera, Paleointensity record through the Lower Mammoth reversal from the Waianae volcano, Hawaii, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 230, 255–272, 2005.
Kissel, C. and C. Laj, Improvements in procedure and paleointensity selection criteria (PICRIT-03) for Thellier and Thellier determinations: application to Hawaiian basaltic long cores, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 147, 155–169, 2004.
Leonhardt, R., J. Matzka, and E. A. Menor, Absolute paleointensities and paleodirections of miocene and pliocene lavas from Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 139, 285–303, 2003.
McFadden, P. L. and F. J. Lowes, The discrimination of mean directions drawn from Fisher distributions, Geophys. J. R. astr. Soc., 67, 19–33, 1981.
Merrill, R. T., M. W. McElhinny, and P. L. McFadden, The Magnetic Field of the Earth, 527 pp., Academic Press, San Diego, 1996.
Nagata, T., Y. Arai, and K. Momose, Secular variation of the geomagnetic total force during the last 5000 years, J. Geophys. Res., 68, 5277–5281, 1963.
Pan, Y., M. J. Hill, and R. Zhu, Paleomagnetic and paleointensity study of an Oligocene-Miocene lava sequence from the Hannuoba Basalts in northern China, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 151, 21–35, 2005.
Perrin, M. and E. Schnepp, IAGA paleointensity database: distribution and quality of the data set, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 147, 255–267, 2004.
Riisager, P. and J. Riisager, Detecting multidomain magnetic grains in Thellier palaeointensity experiments, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 125, 111–117, 2001.
Selkin, P. A. and L. Tauxe, Long-term variations in palaeointensity, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. A., 358, 1065–1088, 2000.
Tanaka, H. and T. Kobayashi, Paleomagnetism of the late Quaternary Ontake Volcano, Japan: directions, intensities, and excursions, Earth Planets Space, 55, 189–202, 2003.
Tanaka, H. and M. Kono, Paleointensities from a Cretaceous basalt platform in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 133, 147–157, 2002.
Tanaka, H., M. Kono, and H. Uchimura, Some global features of paleointensity in geological time, Geophys. J. Int., 120, 97–102, 1995.
Tanaka, H., H. Hoshizumi, Y. Iwasaki, and H. Shibuya, Applications of paleomagnetism in the volcanic field: A case study of the Unzen Volcano, Japan, Earth Planets Space, 56, 635–647, 2004.
Tauxe, L., P. Gans, and E. A. Mankinen, Paleomagnetism and 40Ar/39 Ar ages from volcanics extruded during the Matuyama and Brunhes Chrons near McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, Geochem. Geophys. Geosystems, 5, GC000656, 2004a.
Tauxe, L., C. Luskin, P. Selkin, P. Gans, and A. Calvert, Paleomagnetic results from the Snake River Plain: Contribution to the time-averaged field global database, Geochem. Geophys. Geosystems, 5, GC000661, 2004b.
Thellier, E. and O. Thellier, Sur l’intensité du champ magnetique terrestre dans le passé historique et géologique, Ann. Geophys., 15, 285–376, 1959.
Thomas, D. N., M. J. Hill, and A. S. Garcia, Comparison of the Coe-Thellier-Thellier and microwave palaeointensity techniques using high-titanium titanomagnetites: results from a Tertiary basaltic intrusion from the Sydney Basin, New South Wales, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 229, 15–29, 2004.
Tsunakawa, H. and J. Shaw, The Shaw method of palaeointensity determinations and its application to recent volcanic rocks, Geophys. J. Int., 118, 781–787, 1994.
Yamamoto, Y. and H. Tsunakawa, Geomagnetic field intensity during the last 5 Myr: LTD-DHT Shaw palaeointensities from volcanic rocks of the Society Islands, French Polynesia, Geophys. J. Int., 162, 79–114, 2005.
Zhao, X., P. Riisager, J. Riisager, U. Draeger, R. S. Coe, and Z. Zheng, New paleointensity results from Cretaceous basalt of Inner Mongolia, China, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 141, 131–140, 2004.
Zheng, Z., M. Kono, H. Tsunakawa, G. Kimura, Q. Wei, X. Zhu, and T. Hao, The apparent polar wander path for the North China Block since the Jurassic, Geophys. J. Int., 104, 29–40, 1991.
Zheng, Z., H. Tanaka, Y. Tatsumi, and M. Kono, Basalt platforms in Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province, northeatern China: New K-Ar ages, geochemistries, and revision of palaeomagnetic results, Geophys. J. Int., 151, 654–662, 2002.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Tanaka, H., Takahashi, N. & Zheng, Z. Paleointensities from Tertiary basalts, Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province, northeastern China. Earth Planet Sp 59, 747–754 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352737
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352737