[1] In environmental magnetism, rock and mineral magnetic techniques are used to investigate the formation, transportation, deposition, and postdepositional alterations of magnetic minerals under the influences of a wide range of environmental processes. All materials respond in some way to an applied magnetic field, and iron-bearing minerals are sensitive to a range of environmental processes, which makes magnetic measurements extremely useful for detecting signals associated with environmental processes. Environmental magnetism has grown considerably since the mid 1970s and now contributes to research in the geosciences and in branches of physics, chemistry, and biology and environmental science, including research on climate change, pollution, iron biomineralization, and depositional and diagenetic processes in sediments to name a few applications. Magnetic parameters are used to routinely scan sediments, but interpretation is often difficult and requires understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry. Thorough examination of magnetic properties and of the environmental processes that give rise to the measured magnetic signal is needed to avoid ambiguities, complexities, and limitations to interpretations. In this review, we evaluate environmental magnetic parameters based on theory and empirical results. We describe how ambiguities can be resolved by use of combined techniques and demonstrate the power of environmental magnetism in enabling quantitative environmental interpretations. We also review recent developments that demonstrate the mutual benefit of environmental magnetism from close collaborations with biology, chemistry, and physics. Finally, we discuss directions in which environmental magnetism is likely to develop in the future.

/pdf/environmental-magnetism-principles-and-applications-42hbntvvit.pdf

Environmental magnetism: Principles and applications

Magnetic susceptibility values for topsoils across England arc combined with data for soil type, geochemistry and concentrations of magnetotactic bacteria in order to evaluate different theories for explaining soil magnetism. Strongly magnetic soils in unpolluted areas are found over weakly magnetic substrates and are dominated by ultrafine superparamagnetic grains. Magnetotactic bacteria are present in insufficient concentrations to account for strongly magnetic soils, and crop burning is discounted as a major factor. A small number of samples show high values associated with either airborne magnetic particulates from pollution or residual primary ferrimagnetic minerals from igneous substrates. The results are used to construct a new mechanism for the formation of secondary ferrimagnetic minerals that links abiological weathering and biological fermentation processes. The fundamental driving force in the mechanism is Fe supply, which may be linked to climate. Observed causative associations between climate and the magnetic susceptibility of loess-palaeosol sequences are supported by the findings.

Magnetic susceptibility of soil: an evaluation of conflicting theories using a national data set

Geochemistry of the Xining, Xifeng and Jixian sections, Loess Plateau of China: eolian dust provenance and paleosol evolution during the last 140 ka

Abstract For 40 years magnetic anisotropy has provided successful geological interpretations of magnetic ellipsoid orientations; in contrast the interpretation of anisotropy magnitudes is far more convoluted. This is due to complexities at various levels within rocks, including different physical magnetic responses of different minerals, grain-scale magnetic anisotropy, the anisotropy of interacting ensembles, the mineralogical constitution of rocks and the processes and mechanisms that align minerals in nature. The chief factors determining the magnetic fabrics of tectonized rocks include: mineral-physics properties, crystal symmetry, mineral-abundances, tectonic symmetry and crystal orientation-distribution, strain or stress, kinematic history and certain tectono-metamorphic processes (e.g. diffusion, crystal plasticity, dynamic recrystallization, particulate flow, neomineralization). AMS ultimately provides an integrated record of some combination of these factors. Subfabrics due to distinct processes or events may be expressed in different mineral and/or grain-size fractions, and are superposed in the conventionally observed AMS. Their discrimination may be achieved by various laboratory techniques such as magnetization and torque measurements in weak and strong applied fields, anisotropy of ARM and IRM, gyroremanence, Rayleigh magnetization, chemical leaching. However, under limited circumstances, statistical approaches such as differential analysis, tensor standardization, symmetry of confidence regions for the principal axes may partly isolate different subfabric orientations.

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS): magnetic petrofabrics of deformed rocks

SUMMARY

Temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility (χ−T) has been widely used to determine changes in mineralogy of natural samples during heat treatment. We carried out integrated rock magnetic experiments to interpret the χ−T curves of the Chinese loess/palaeosols in argon. We used both raw materials and heated samples. In addition, we also investigated the magnetic properties of magnetic extracts and residues to quantify contributions from each fraction to the bulk magnetic properties. For the heating curves, the susceptibility loss (∼30 per cent) between ∼300–400 °C is caused by the inversion from pedogenic fine-grained maghemite to haematite, suggesting that the susceptibility loss can be used as a new concentration index of the pedogenic fine-grained superparamagnetic (SP) particles in the Chinese loess/palaeosols. Unlike the warming curves, the cooling curves are dominated by newly formed fine-grained magnetites with a dominant size of ∼35 nm. The onset for the new production of these fine-grained magnetic particles occurs at ∼400 °C. It is interesting that the room-temperature magnetic susceptibility (χph) of the samples heated after a 700 °C run is independent of the degree of pedogenesis and saturates at approximately 33–35 × 10−7 m3 kg−1, indicating that the susceptibility enhancement is controlled only by the reduction of Fe-bearing aeolian minerals during heating. It appears that the 700 °C thermal treatment in argon could be in some sense an analogue to the pedogenic processes. Thus, we predict that ∼33–35 × 10−7 m3 kg−1 is the maximum susceptibility that pedogenesis can generate for the last interglacial palaeosol unit (S1). In practice, χph would be useful to quantify the aeolian inputs to the Chinese Loess plateau.

/pdf/temperature-dependence-of-magnetic-susceptibility-in-an-2bri714ses.pdf

Temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility in an argon environment: implications for pedogenesis of Chinese loess/palaeosols

SUMMARY Results of the first detailed study of the climate proxy record in the loess-palaeosol sequence at Xining-one of the few palaeoclimate sites in the currently arid western Loess Plateau of China-illustrate the importance of making many types of rockmagnetic measurements other than susceptibility. A multiparameter approach yielded confirmation that here, as elsewhere in the Loess Plateau, the susceptibility enhancement in palaeosols was caused primarily by ultrafine magnetite and maghaemite. Nevertheless, magnetic enhancement was caused not exclusively by changes in relative grain size, but also by variations in concentration and mineralogy of the magnetic fraction. The effects of concentration variations were removed through normalization of susceptibility and anhysteretic remanence with saturation magnetization and saturation remanence, respectively. The resulting signal was ascribed more confidently to variation in magnetic grain size, which in turn was interpreted as a better proxy of pedogenesis than simple susceptibility. Variations in magnetic mineralogy were also determined to constrain interpretations further. The data were then used to discuss climate history at Xining. Finally, results from Xining were compared with other western sites and contrasted with eastern sites. In summary: (1) data is presented from a new Loess Plateau site which also appears to yield a global climate signal; (2) a demonstration is made of a more rock-magnetically robust way to separate concentration, composition and grain-size controls on susceptibility and other magnetic parameters; and (3) models are provided for inter-regional comparisons of palaeoclimate proxy records.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/175069/Geophys.%20J.%20Int.-1995-Hunt-232-44.pdf?sequence=1

Rock-magnetic proxies of climate change in the loess-palaeosol sequences of the western Loess Plateau of China

The role of maghemite in the enhancement of magnetic signal in the Chinese loess-paleosol sequence: An extensive rock magnetic study combined with citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite treatment

SUMMARY Most rocks contain both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic minerals that contribute to their bulk magnetic susceptibility and the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility techniques typically measure the net susceptibility and are not able to separate paramagnetic and ferromagnetic contributions. Since different minerals may form at various times and/or under different conditions, examination of their individual contributions provides unique information related to the rock’s formation and evolution. By subjecting a sample to high magnetic fields, the ferromagnetic minerals become saturated and the contribution of the paramagnetic minerals can be evaluated (the slope of the line at high field values, on a field vs magnetization plot). Using this approach, we developed a new technique that separates the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic components of standard 1 inch cylindrical samples using a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer. This separation is tested by artificially combining separate samples with known paramagnetic-only and ferromagnetic-only behaviour. By comparing the high-field results of a combined paramagnetic and ferromagnetic signal to the classic low field alternating current susceptibility of the paramagnetic-only signal, we demonstrate that the high field anisotropy is the result solely of the paramagnetic fabric even when the low field anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility is dominated by the ferromagnetic minerals. A ferromagnetic-only fabric is calculated for the combined paramagnetic and ferromagnetic rock, by tensor subtraction of the high field (paramagnetic-only) and low field (paramagnetic plus ferromagnetic) measurements on the same sample. Application of this technique to natural samples of combined paramagnetic and ferromagnetic behaviour is discussed.

/pdf/a-new-method-for-the-separation-of-paramagnetic-and-51lf08rxaw.pdf

Weiwei Sun

Papers

Rock-magnetic proxies of climate change in the loess-palaeosol sequences of the western Loess Plateau of China

The role of maghemite in the enhancement of magnetic signal in the Chinese loess-paleosol sequence: An extensive rock magnetic study combined with citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite treatment

A new method for the separation of paramagnetic and ferromagnetic susceptibility anisotropy using low field and high field methods