Abstract
Kittel [1946], then of the erstwhile Bell Laboratories, predicted that magnetization reversal in small uniformly magnetized, or single‐domain particles will occur only if a large negative magnetic field (∼2×102 mT) was applied. In other words, once magnetically saturated and left in the ambient Earth's magnetic field, the single‐domain (SD) particles would exhibit high values of magnetic remanence, as well as high coercive forces. The terrestrial geomagnetic “recording media,” sediments and rocks with strongly ferrimagnetic particles in them, owe their magnetic stability or “memory” over geological timescales to such high coercive forces. Stacey (1963) applied Kittel's theory to calculate SD size thresholds for magnetite and hematite, the two most common iron oxide minerals in the Earth's crust.
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