Abstract
Records of various geomagnetic reversals which occurred over the past 25Myr suggest that transitional field configurations are largely controlled by low-order zonal components. Given sufficient data further clarification is possible as octupole and quadrupole dominated fields are palaeomagnetically distinguishable. Moreover, because each geometry may reflect a reversal process which starts in a particular region of the core, configurational characteristics of the geomagnetic dynamo during polarity transitions are, in principle, identifiable.
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Hoffman, K., Fuller, M. Transitional field configurations and geomagnetic reversal. Nature 273, 715–718 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/273715a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/273715a0
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