A preliminary magnetic study of soil samples from west-central Minnesota |
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| Authors: | Özden Özdemir Subir K Banerjee |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (U.S.A.) |
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| Abstract: | Various rock magnetic techniques were applied to characterize magnetically the samples of a soil profile taken from west-central Minnesota. There is a marked change in magnetic properties as a function of depth in the core. X-ray analysis and Curie temperature measurements carried out on the magnetic fractions indicate that magnetite is the dominant iron oxide in both the top soil and the subsoil. The intensity of anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) decreases sharply as the depth increases. In contrast, the stability of ARM was found to be higher for the subsoil. The surface soil sample was capable of acquiring a significant amount of viscous remanent magnetization (VRM). The VRM acquisition coefficient (Sa) of the subsoil (Sa= 3.18 × 10?6emu g?1, 3.18 × 10?6A m2 kg?1) was about ten times weaker than that of the top soil sample (Sa = 3.868 × 10?7emu g?1, 3.868 × 10?7A m2 kg?1). The magnetic domain state indicator, the ratio of coercivity of remanence to coercive force, Hcr/Hc, was 1.5 and 3.85 for the top soil and subsoil, respectively. It appears that the observed variations in magnetic properties down the present soil core is due only to a difference in grain size. We conclude that the magnetic grains in surface soil samples were more single-domain (SD) like whereas the magnetite grains in the subsoil samples were more likely in pseudo-single-domain (PSD) or small multidomain (MD) range. The observed lower stability for the surface soil samples is attributed to the presence of superparamagnetic grains whose presence was confirmed by transmission electron micrographs. |
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