Ancient magnetic field determinations on selected chondritic meteorites

Paleofield intensity determinations involving a comparison of the stable natural remanence (NRM) component with a laboratory thermoremanence (TRM) were carried out on nine chondrites selected in Brecher and Fuhrman (1979a, this issue, hereafter called Paper I), as well as on two manifestly unsuitable controls. To judge their reliability: (1) heat-alteration was monitored by comparing saturation coercivity spectra before and after heating; and (2) the NRM and TRM intensity and stability were compared to those of residual magnetization following zero-field cooling (TRM₀) from above the Curie point of kamacite (Ni---Fe). The latter criterion separates the role of an external magnetic field (of 0.43 Oe) at cooling from intrinsic contributions to magnetic grain alignments, due to accretionary, metamorphic or shock-oriented petrofabrics.

In some chondrites (e.g., Brownfield, H3B; Holyoke, H4C; Farley, H5A), a surprisingly large (10% NRM) and stable TRM₀ proved so similar to NRM and TRM, that sizeable spurious “paleofields” — comparable to paleointensities obtained — were derived by the standard method for zero-field cooling. In other chondrites, with negligible TRM₀ (1% of NRM) and irregular AF demagnetization curves, more reliable paleofield strengths in the range 0.01–0.09 Oe were obtained (e.g., Cavour, H6C). These seem representative of magnetic fields at the end of metamorphism intervals (10⁷ years after accretion) and/or at post-shock cooling. Thus, field strengths obtained from ordinary chondrites are typically weaker (by factors of 10–100) than those reliably determined from carbonaceous chondrites and ureilites, suggesting temporal decay of nebular magnetic fields, from the end of accretion until the end of metamorphism and early catastrophic-collisional stages.