Intensity of geomagnetic field in the Precambrian and evolution of the Earth’s deep interior

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2017

Abstract

© 2017, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. Reliable data on the paleointensity of the geomagnetic field can become an important source of information both about the mechanisms of generation of the field at present and in the past, and about the internal structure of the Earth, especially the structure and evolution of its core. Unfortunately, the reliability of these data remains a serious problem of paleomagnetic research because of the limitations of experimental methods, and the complexity and diversity of rocks and their magnetic carriers. This is true even for relatively “young” Phanerozoic rocks, but investigation of Precambrian rocks is associated with many additional difficulties. As a consequence, our current knowledge of paleointensity, especially in the Precambrian period, is still very limited. The data limitations do not preclude attempts to use the currently available paleointensity results to analyze the evolution and characteristics of the Earth’s internal structure, such as the age of the Earth’s solid inner core or thermal conductivity in the liquid core. However, such attempts require considerable caution in handling data. In particular, it has now been reliably established that some results on the Precambrian paleointensity overestimate the true paleofield strength. When the paleointensity overestimates are excluded from consideration, the range of the field strength changes in the Precambrian does not exceed the range of its variation in the Phanerozoic. This result calls into question recent assertions that the Earth’s inner core formed in the Mesoproterozoic, about 1.3 billion years ago, triggering a statistically significant increase in the long-term average field strength. Instead, our analysis has shown that the quantity and quality of the currently available data on the Precambrian paleointensity are insufficient to estimate the age of the solid inner core and, therefore, cannot be useful for solving the problem of the thermal conductivity of the Earth’s core. The data are consistent with very young or very “old” inner core ages and, correspondingly, with high or low values of core thermal conductivity.

Publication Title

Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth

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