Declination and inclination errors in experimentally deposited specularite-bearing sand

S.L. Bressler; D. P. Elston

doi:10.1016/0012-821x(80)90184-3

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Declination and inclination errors in experimentally deposited specularite-bearing sand

S.L. Bressler·D. P. Elston

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Abstract

Naturally disaggregated specularite-bearing sandstone from the Triassic Moenkopi Formation, artificially deposited in controlled magnetic fields of ∼5 × 10 −2 mT, acquires a stable remanent magnetization that has systematic errors in inclination and declination. Inclinations about 12° shallower than the applied fields are produced by deposition on a horizontal surface in still water. Deposition from flowing water on a surface inclined 6–10° results in inclination errors of as much as 20°. Water flowing obliquely to the applied field results in declination errors of about 10°, with declinations systematically rotated toward the upstream direction of current flow. These experimental results indicate that specularite-bearing sediment responds to the earth's field in a manner similar to magnetite-bearing sediment, and support observational evidence for a primary magnetization of depositional origin in specularite in red beds of the Moenkopi Formation.

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S.L. Bressler, D. P. Elston. 1980. Declination and inclination errors in experimentally deposited specularite-bearing sand. https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821x(80)90184-3

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