This award will support the development of a magnetometer to measure the magnetic viscosity acquisition coefficients of rocks typical of the Earth's crust at elevated temperatures and pressures simulating in situ conditions in the crust. Magnetic surveys over large areas of the crust have been used to infer both the composition and structure of subsurface crust. Large regions of crust exhibit high-amplitude magnetic anomalies implying crustal magnetization values much higher than those actually observed in laboratory measurements on small samples of crustal rocks. Part of the discrepancy between these laboratory based measurements of magnetization in individual samples and what is measured above large crustal areas is thought to arise from the current inability of laboratory instrumentation to measure the magnetization of rocks acquired over time under the high-temperature-pressure conditions ambient inside the Earth's crust. This project is intended to provide such measurement capability for researchers trying to understand the details of the geomagnetic field and its interaction with rock magnetic properties.
