Magnetic mineral diagenesis

Magnetic mineral assemblages in soils and paleosols as the basis for paleoprecipitation proxies: A review of magnetic methods and challenges

The link between biomineralization and fossilization of bacteria: Insights from field and experimental studies

Magnetite (Fe3O4) is an important magnetic mineral to Earth scientists, as it carries the dominant magnetic signature in rocks, and the understanding of its magnetic recording fidelity provides a critical tool in the field of palaeomagnetism. However, reliable interpretation of the recording fidelity of Fe3O4 particles is greatly diminished over time by progressive oxidation to less magnetic iron oxides, such as maghemite (g-Fe2O3), with consequent alteration of remanent magnetization potentially having important geological significance. Here we use the complementary techniques of environmental transmission electron microscopy and off-axis electron holography to induce and visualize the effects of oxidation on the magnetization of individual nanoscale Fe3O4 particles as they transform towards g-Fe2O3. Magnetic induction maps demonstrate a change in both strength and direction of remanent magnetization within Fe3O4 particles in the size range dominant in rocks, confirming that oxidation can modify the original stored magnetic information.

/pdf/visualized-effect-of-oxidation-on-magnetic-recording-8ugpni1wa4.pdf

Visualized effect of oxidation on magnetic recording fidelity in pseudo-single-domain magnetite particles

In the world-famous sediments of the Chinese Loess Plateau, fossil soils alternate with windblown dust layers to record monsoonal variations over the last ∼3 My. The less-weathered, weakly magnetic dust layers reflect drier, colder glaciations. The fossil soils (paleosols) contain variable concentrations of nanoscale, strongly magnetic iron oxides, formed in situ during the wetter, warmer interglaciations. Mineralogical identification of the magnetic soil oxides is essential for deciphering these key paleoclimatic records. Formation of magnetite, a mixed Fe2+/Fe3+ ferrimagnet, has been linked to soil redox oscillations, and thence to paleorainfall. An opposite hypothesis states that magnetite can only form if the soil is water saturated for significant periods in order for Fe3+ to be reduced to Fe2+, and suggests instead the temperature-dependent formation of maghemite, an Fe3+-oxide, much of which ages subsequently into hematite, typically aluminum substituted. This latter, oxidizing pathway would have been temperature, but not rainfall dependent. Here, through structural fingerprinting and scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy analysis, we prove that magnetite is the dominant soil-formed ferrite. Maghemite is present in lower concentrations, and shows no evidence of aluminum substitution, negating its proposed precursor role for the aluminum-substituted hematite prevalent in the paleosols. Magnetite dominance demonstrates that magnetite formation occurs in well-drained, generally oxidizing soils, and that soil wetting/drying oscillations drive the degree of soil magnetic enhancement. The magnetic variations of the Chinese Loess Plateau paleosols thus record changes in monsoonal rainfall, over timescales of millions of years.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/8/1736.full.pdf

Identification and paleoclimatic significance of magnetite nanoparticles in soils.

[1] Single-domain magnetite particles produced by magnetotactic bacteria (magnetosomes) and aligned in chains are of great interest in the biosciences and geosciences. Here, we investigated angular variation of magnetic properties of aligned Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 cells, each of which contains one single fragmental chain of magnetosomes. With measurements at increasing angles from the chain direction, we observed that (i) the hysteresis loop gradually changes from nearly rectangular to a ramp-like shape (e.g., Bc and remanence decrease), (ii) the acquisition and demagnetization curves of IRM shift toward higher fields (e.g., Bcr increases), and (iii) the FORC diagram shifts toward higher coercivity fields (e.g., Bc,FORC increases). For low-temperature results, compared to unoriented samples, the samples containing aligned chains have a much lower remanence loss of field-cooled (δFC) and zero-field-cooled (δZFC) remanence upon warming through the Verwey transition, higher δ-ratio (δ = δFC/δZFC) for the measurement parallel to the chain direction, and lower δ-ratio, larger δFC and δZFC values for the perpendicular measurement. Micromagnetic simulations confirm the experimental observations and reveal that the magnetization reversal of magnetosome chain appears to be noncoherent at low angles and coherent at high angles. The simulations also demonstrate that the angular dependence of magnetic properties is related to the dispersion degree of individual chains, indicating that effects of anisotropy need to be accounted for when using rock magnetism to identify magnetosomes or magnetofossils once they have been preserved in aligned chains. Additionally, this study experimentally demonstrates an empirical correspondence of the parameter Bc,FORC to Bcr rather than Bc, at least for magnetite chains with strong shape anisotropy. This suggests FORC analysis is a good discriminant of magnetofossils in sediments and rocks.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ggge.20228

A strong angular dependence of magnetic properties of magnetosome chains: Implications for rock magnetism and paleomagnetism

The relationship between magnetic hysteresis parameters and the degree of oxidation of ultrafine magnetite particles is examined by both experimental measurements (distributed particle assemblage with median grain size of ∼80 nm and standard deviation 0.43) and micromagnetic simulations (single particles from 40 nm to 140 nm). Experimental results show that both coercivity (Bc) and the ratio of saturation remanence to saturation magnetization (Mrs/Ms) increase slowly, as the oxidation parameter z increases from 0 to ∼0.9. Thereafter, both parameters decrease sharply as magnetite becomes completely oxidized to maghemite. Numerical simulations of hysteresis loop and microstructure using a micromagnetic model with a core-shell geometry (a stoichiometric core surrounded by an oxidized shell) show three categories of behavior for magnetic grains during oxidation. First, the coercivity of SD particles decreases as oxidation proceeds, but their remanence magnetization remains in a uniform state. Second, for PSD sized particles near the critical SD boundary (80 nm to 100 nm), the initial vortex domain structure changes to a SD as oxidation occurs and returns to a vortex state upon complete maghemitization, resulting in an initial rise and then fall of Bc and Mrs. Finally, larger PSD grains remain a vortex state throughout the maghemitization, with less variations of Bc and Mrs. The predicted magnetic properties exhibit good agreement with experimental observations and suggest that the domain arrangement is likely to be dominated by a core-shell structure with strong exchange coupling at their interface. Overall, the partially oxidized magnetite in SD-PSD range can reliably record palaeomagnetic signals.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2014GC005265

Effects of the core‐shell structure on the magnetic properties of partially oxidized magnetite grains: Experimental and micromagnetic investigations

SUMMARY

Widely distributed haematite-bearing red beds are an important source of palaeomagnetic field records. However, unresolved issues regarding remagnetization and inclination shallowing in red beds have questioned the reliability of the palaeomagnetic results obtained from such materials. In this study, we investigated the remagnetization mechanism in red beds from Lower Triassic sandstones in Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Our results indicate that the characteristic remanent magnetizations (ChRMs) of most samples (112/125) are dominated by only one component at temperatures 80–660 °C, with a mean direction of D/I= 0.9/46.6° (k= 440.2, α95= 2.1°). The corresponding geomagnetic pole is 89.1°N, 331.7°E (k= 338.2, A95= 2.4°). This coincides with the present geomagnetic field, which is a strong indication that these ChRMs are remagnetized. Combined rock magnetic and microscope investigations reveal that the remagnetization is due to the acquisition of a chemical remanent magnetization (CRM) carried by authigenic maghemite and haematite. Despite the widespread remagnetization, about 7 per cent of the studied samples still record a magnetization that we consider to be primary that was isolated at high temperatures 610–660 °C, with a mean direction of D/I= 213.3/18.6° (k= 16.0, α95= 11.7°). We propose that the CRM overprinting is controlled by the overlapping degree of the unblocking temperature between the CRM carried by the authigenic haematite and the primary remanent magnetization carried by the detrital haematite. Our results further suggest that microscope investigation, rock magnetic proxies for the haematite concentration and susceptibility–temperature curves are useful methods for pre-selecting samples suitable for isolating the primary remanence at this region. The linkage among the palaeomagnetic results, rock magnetic proxies and CRM remagnetization mechanism could be extended to other studies, although the detailed proxy would be different due to specific overprint process.

/pdf/nature-of-remagnetization-of-lower-triassic-red-beds-in-az4lxqcj0j.pdf

Nature of remagnetization of Lower Triassic red beds in southwestern China

To characterize the metallogenic environment of a typical vein-type uranium deposit, samples from diabase dykes, alteration zones including metamorphic diabase and uranium ore, and granites were systematically investigated for six boreholes from southeastern China. Rock magnetic results indicate that coarse-grained magnetites (pseudosingle domain, PSD, and multidomain, MD) are dominant magnetic carriers in diabase. In contrast, the uranium ore is dominated by fine-grained magnetites (superparamagnetic, SP, and single-domain, SD). The concentration of magnetic particles in fresh granites is low. Magnetic properties of metamorphic diabases exhibit much greater variability of magnetic properties and higher degrees of sulfuration than unaltered diabase and granite, due to contact metasomatism and reduction effects close to the vein. Compared with diabase, magnetic remanence of the uranium ore is much lower, but displays much higher stability. The Koenigsberger ratio Q peaks in the uranium ore with a value of ∼1.00. Using the systematic rock magnetic results to constrain the interpretation, the contribution of the intersection zone of diabase dyke and silicified fault to magnetic anomalies was further modeled, and the effects of the ore body are significant for magnetic exploration. Overall, rock magnetic investigations of vein-type uranium deposit provide a better understanding of the interactions between different rock types, and further facilitate regional magnetic surveys on the ground.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2016GC006756

Rock magnetic investigation and its geological significance for vein-type uranium deposits in southern China

/pdf/models-of-maghematization-observational-evidence-in-support-3athiv6293.pdf

Kunpeng Ge

Papers

A strong angular dependence of magnetic properties of magnetosome chains: Implications for rock magnetism and paleomagnetism

Effects of the core‐shell structure on the magnetic properties of partially oxidized magnetite grains: Experimental and micromagnetic investigations

Nature of remagnetization of Lower Triassic red beds in southwestern China

Rock magnetic investigation and its geological significance for vein-type uranium deposits in southern China

Models of Maghematization: Observational Evidence in Support of a Magnetic Unstable Zone