On the abnormally high natural remanent magnetization of certain lavas

Abstract

The rock specimens found to have natural remanent magnetization of abnormally high intensity, have been generally from hill sides or tops, or from ridges high up from the local surroundings. A field of several hundred oersteds has been found sufficient to produce in some of the artificially demagnetized specimens an isothermal magnetization of the same order as the abnormal natural ones, and this magnetization has shown a similar degree of stability as the natural one. Variations in the direction and magnitude of the natural magnetic vector have been found over a distance of a few centimetres. Laboratory tests indicate a normal chemical composition for the specimens. The lightning discharge seems to be the plausible cause of abnormally high magnetization of rocks, which is generally isothermal and might have originated in the recent past, but the magnetization is sometimes complicated probably by the thermal effect of the discharge.