Effect of Static Pressure on Absolute Paleointesity Determinations with Implications for Meteorites

Abstract:

Meteorites store information about the magnetic fields present in the solar system. However, most meteorites have experienced pressure/shock, which will influence the magnetic properties of the remanence carrying minerals. Here, we quantify the effect that relatively low pressure has on paleointensity recording with relevance to meteorites that have no petrographic evidence for shock. Thellier-type experiments were carried out on 40 samples containing thermally stable titanomagnetite similar to that found in some achondrites. Pressure cycling was performed under hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic conditions. We also tested the effect of pressure cycling when the maximum compression axis was imposed parallel and perpendicular to the magnetization direction.
The initial zero pressure experiment correctly reproduced the laboratory field imparted on the samples. Paleointensity values decrease 10%/GPa under hydrostatic conditions with no observable directional dependence between the direction of the magnetization with the maximum compression axis. Non-hydrostatic pressures have a significantly greater effect - paleointensity decreases 20%/GPa on average, with only a slight difference when pressure is imposed parallel to the magnetization direction, whereas the pressure demagnetization effect is more substantial. Interestingly, the data become more linear (higher quality factors) as pressure increases. We explain this phenomenon through a numerical model that shows the mean blocking temperatures become lower with increasing pressure. This reduces the difference between mean blocking and unblocking, which eliminates the sagging (curvature) seen in Arai plots.
Considering that samples from meteorites classified as unshocked may have experienced pressures up to 5 GPa, paleointensity estimates derived from meteorites should be considered as minimum values.