Comments on the interpretation of linear magnetic anomalies

Summary In response to the recent interpretation of marine magnetic anomalies in terms of the crustal spreading hypothesis, a summary is made of other factors including structural, initial cooling, post cooling, and possible spontaneous processes which may cause at least some of the characters of linear magnetic anomalies. Arguments are developed by presentation ofQ values for 571 specimens from fourteen Icelandic lavas and six dikes, and by theQ value, stability factor, and oxidation variation between the cooling faces of one of these lavas. None of the processes described can alone readily account for the observed symmetry of magnetic anomalies with respect to mid-oceanic ridges, but are presented to encourage examination and development of mechanisms other than geomagnetic polarity changes superimposed on a crustal generating system, as the causes of at least some oceanic magnetic anomalies.