Identification of short polarity events by transforming marine magnetic profiles to the pole

Abstract

A method is presented that permits marine magnetic anomaly profiles from all parts of the world to be stacked for the purpose of enhancing coherent small anomalies due to short geomagnetic polarity events. In general, the shape of a profile depends not only on the sequence of normally and reversely magnetized magnetic prisms that constitute the source, but also on the following five angles: the declination and inclination of the regional field; the declination and inclination of the magnetization; and the azimuth of the magnetic stripes. Our method transforms a measured anomaly to a second anomaly which would have been produced by an identical source with vertical magnetization and vertical regional field. The method uses Fourier transform and linear systems theory and employs filters with a flat spectral response, so that no information is lost at short wavelengths. No assumptions are made about the true depth or shape of the source: this may be any two-dimensional body or bodies in which the direction of magnetization is constant and the intensity varies arbitrarily. A preliminary application of the method to marine profiles from the East Pacific rise has yielded encouraging results.