Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution IV
Coarse-grained magnetites in biotite as a possible stable remanence-carrying phase in Vredefort granites
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Published:September 01, 2010
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CiteCitation
Norihiro Nakamura, Kensaku Okuno, Minoru Uehara, Tetsuya Ozawa, Lisa Tatsumi-Petrocholis, Michael Fuller, 2010. "Coarse-grained magnetites in biotite as a possible stable remanence-carrying phase in Vredefort granites", Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution IV, Roger L. Gibson, Wolf Uwe Reimold
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The Archean granites of the Vredefort impact structure show a high intensity of natural remanent magnetization (NRM) and a random dispersion of directions of high-coercivity components on the centimeter scale. It has been suggested that this anomalous remanence is carried by rod-shaped single-domain (SD) magnetites along planar deformation features (PDFs) in shocked quartz produced as a consequence of the impact event. To determine the carriers of this NRM, we conducted surface magnetic field observations using scanning magneto-impedance (MI) magnetic microscopy during stepwise alternating field (AF) demagnetization over a 1-mm-thick slice of Vredefort granite. We found that the stable component after demagnetization gives rise to just three strong magnetic anomalies. Progressive thinning of the scanned section and micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed that the source of these magnetic anomalies, the highly coercive remanence-carrying mineral, is an assemblage of relatively coarse-grained (1–200 μm) magnetite in biotite, not single-domain magnetite embedded along PDF lamella.
- Africa
- alternating field demagnetization
- Archean
- biotite
- coarse-grained materials
- coercivity
- demagnetization
- framework silicates
- Free State South Africa
- granites
- igneous rocks
- impact craters
- impact features
- magnetic anomalies
- magnetic domains
- magnetic field
- magnetite
- magnetization
- metamorphism
- mica group
- multidomains
- natural remanent magnetization
- oxides
- planar deformation features
- plutonic rocks
- Precambrian
- pseudo-single domains
- quartz
- Raman spectra
- remanent magnetization
- sheet silicates
- shock metamorphism
- silica minerals
- silicates
- single domains
- South Africa
- Southern Africa
- spectra
- Vredefort Dome