Magnetometers in paleomagnetic laboratories are used for the determination of the geomagnetic field directions and intensities that have been recorded in rocks, and also for the discrimination of magnetic minerals and their magnetic properties. For paleomagnetism, the main consideration is to measure that magnetization vector in a rock, whereas for environmental magnetism the requirement is to identify a sample's magnetic mineralogy and grain size distribution. In either case the magnetometers employed can operate by one of two fundamentally different processes. Either the magnetization of the sample can be used to induce a current in a sensing coil, or the magnetization can create a force by interacting with an instrument‐generated magnetic field gradient, and the force measured by a variety of methods.
Magnetometers used for determination of paleomagnetic vectors
Standard paleomagnetic samples are 2.5 cm diameter cores, approximately 2.5 cm in length, and most paleomagnetic...
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Williams, W. (2007). Magnetometers, Laboratory. In: Gubbins, D., Herrero-Bervera, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4423-6_204
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4423-6_204
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