Properties of Red Sea Pillow-Basalt Titanomagnetite at Different Distances from the Crust

Abstract

The magnetic properties and mineralogy of titanomagnetite in the Red Sea pillow-basalt at different distances from the contact surface with water were studied. It was revealed that the composition of titanomagnetite in the pillow basalt changes from the crust deep into the pillow: the titanium content in titanomagnetite increases, while the magnesium and aluminum content decreases. Titanomagnetite in the surface layer of pillow basalt (0–2 cm) is single-phase oxidized, with a maximum oxidation degree of 0.13, and at more than 3 cm from the crust has stoichiometric composition. According to the increase in magnetic susceptibility from 0.2 up to 1.8 × 10–2 SI, saturation magnetization from 0.026 to 0.895 A m2/kg and residual saturation magnetization from 0.014 to 0.296 A m2/kg, decrease in coercivity (Hc from 90 to 15 mT, Hcr from 153 to 20 mT), as well as by observations of electron and magnetic force microscopy, it is shown that the concentration of titanomagnetite in basalt and the grain size from single-domain state to pseudo-single-domain state increase with distance from the crust. The magnetic hardness of titanomagnetite grains was found to correlate with the maximum cooling rate of basalt. The NRM of basalt varies non-monotonically with distance from the pillow surface: up to a depth of about 3 cm its growth caused by the growth of titanomagnetite concentration was revealed, then a decrease caused by a decrease in the magnetic hardness of the grains. In spite of a rather strong variation of the magnetic properties in the 0–7 cm layer of pillow basalt, the experiments by the Thellier-Coe method for all layers showed close values of the geomagnetic field paleointensity (62.5–66.0 μT) with a high value of quality coefficient q (11–45). No regularity in the value of paleointensity with distance from the cushion surface was detected.