| Abstract: | An electric furnace with oxygen-fugacity control was constructed. Oxygen partial pressure inside the furnace is controlled by flowing H2 and CO2 gas mixtures in different ratios. The system is set up inside a three-layer permalloy shield and a solenoid coil to produce an axial magnetic field. Oxygen fugacities are directly measured by an yttriadoped zirconia probe. The difference between the predicted and measured values of fugacities was small at 1,200°C, but a substantial discrepancy was observed at 780°C. Thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) was produced in various gas mixtures by heating the samples of recent basaltic lavas of Oshima (Japan) and Hawaii to 600 or 800°C for 1 h and cooling in a 0.4-Oe field. In general, the TRM is larger when produced in an oxidizing atmosphere and smaller in a reducing atmosphere. Alternating field demagnetization shows that the coercivity is also increased (decreased) when the TRM is acquired in oxidizing (reducing) conditions. However, these properties depend also on the previous heat treatments of the samples. |
