At the Asilomar Workshop on Rock Magnetism (September 16-19, 1986) it was unanimously agreed that the next generation of paleomagnetic problems which impact on geomagnetic field generation and reversal, tectonics of continental margins and Precambrian continental drift require a major increase in our knowledge of the effects of time and temperature on the magnetization of pure magnetite and titanomagnetite. A materials synthesis technique, the glass-ceramic method, which produces well dispersed single crystals ranging in size from 50 nm to 100 um in a non-magnetic matrix material has been developed. These samples (and other newly synthesized ones) will be used to study the effects of applied field, temperature and internal stress on the acquisition and stability of thermo-viscous magnetization. The experiments will reveal whether domain wall/stress interaction through "disacommodation" or "aftereffect" phenomenon is important for multidomain samples whose thermomagnetic properties we have shown to be not explicable with existing theories. The results will also be relevant to best and possibly improve thermal paleointensity methods, presently a matter of considerable controversy.
