Inversion of Chelyabinsk Meteorite Micromagnetic Maps - Implication for Inversions of Mars Magnetic Maps

Abstract:

The largest fragment of Chelyabinsk meteorite fell into the Russian lake Chebarkul on February 15, 2013. We used magnetic scanner constructed by Youngwood Science and Engineering (YSE, see Kletetschka et al 2013) to obtain micromagnetic maps of one of the Chelyabinsk’s meteorite fragment. Our instrument has a Hall effect magnetic sensor and maps vertical component of the magnetic field approximately 0.3 mm above the planar surface of meteorite sample. Advantage of this instrument is a constant background field due to static position of the sensor. We applied fast Fourier transform inversion technique developed by Lima et al (2013). This technique is tailored for scanning magnetic microscopy (SMM), but may be also modified for aeromagnetic or satellite survey. It retrieves planar unidirectional magnetization distribution from micromagnetic field map. With this technique we achieved verifiable information about the source of the magnetic anomalies in our meteorite sample. Specific areas of detected magnetization were used for compositional analyses by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This way we obtain the ground truth for the source of magnetic anomalies of our meteorite thin section. Measurement of chemical composition of magnetic grains can be directly linked to the amount of magnetization for the specific magnetic mineralogy. The inversion technique was extended for interpretation of real magnetic anomalies on Mars.

Lima, E. A., B. P. Weiss, L. Baratchart,D. P.Hardin, and E. B. Saff (2013), Fast inversion ofmagnetic field maps of unidirectional planar geological magnetization, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 118, 2723–2752, doi:10.1002/jgrb.50229.

Kletetschka, G., Schnabl, P., Sifnerova, K., Tasaryova, Z., Manda, S., and Pruner, P., 2013, Magnetic scanning and interpretation of paleomagnetic data from Prague Synform's volcanics: Studia Geophysica Et Geodaetica, v. 57, no. 1, p. 103-117.