Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Article
Nature 316, 230-234 (18 July 1985) | doi:10.1038/316230a0; Accepted 15 May 1985
How the geomagnetic field vector reverses polarity
Michel Prévot*, Edward A. Mankinen†, C. Sherman Grommé† & Robert S. Coe‡
- *Laboratoire de Géomagnétisme, CNRS and Université de Paris 6, 94107 Saint-Maur Cédex; Centre Géologique et Géophysique, CNRS and Université des Sciences et Techniques, 34060 Montpellier Cédex, France
- †US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
- ‡Earth Sciences Board, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
Abstract
A highly detailed record of both the direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field as it reverses has been obtained from a Miocene volcanic sequence. The transitional field is low in intensity and is typically non-axisymmetric. Geomagnetic impulses corresponding to astonishingly high rates of change of the field sometimes occur, suggesting that liquid velocity within the Earth's core increases during geomagnetic reversals.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
