Abstract
THE main features of the geomagnetic time scale for 0–3 Myr BP are well defined1–3, but the existence and/or number of short events (polarity intervals lasting less than 50,000 yr) is still under discussion. Interest in correlating these short events with features in marine magnetic profiles has focused on three short-wavelength anomalies: anomaly X4,5 which appears at approximately 2.3 Myr BP; anomaly W5–7 at 2.0 Myr BP; and a short-wavelength feature in the centre of the central anomaly3,6,8,9. These anomalies appear rarely, and then usually only in profiles from regions of rapid spreading. We present here an analysis of a remarkable new set of data from just such a region. Our results provide evidence of the existence of two, or possibly three, short events in (the interval 0–3 Myr BP, and of the existence of a magnetised ridge at the precise centre of seafloor spreading.
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REA, D., BLAKELY, R. Short-wavelength magnetic anomalies in a region of rapid seafloor spreading. Nature 255, 126–128 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/255126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/255126a0
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