Mineral Magnetism in Relation to Thermal Thellier Palaeointensity Experimental Results of the Deccan Basalt Flows Along the Deep Drill Hole in Western India and Their Significance

Abstract

Thermal Thellier type palaeointensity (PI) experiments are the most popular technique in determining strength of the past geomagnetic field (GMF). However, the method often encounters high failure rate. Mineral magnetic properties can provide useful information to enhance the success rate. We conducted the first ever detailed mineral magnetic and Thellier type PI experiments on lava flows within a 1250 m stratigraphic section of the largest end-Cretaceous (~ 65–66 Ma) Deccan flood basalt. The lava flows mostly contain pseudo single domain (PSD) titano-magnetite/magnetite with, low viscosity index (≤ 5), high/moderate Koenigsberger ratio (Qn > 10/ < 10), isothermal remanent magnetisation parameters typical of ferromagnetic minerals, saturation remanence magnetization to saturation magnetization ratio (Mrs/Ms: 0.05–0.31), coercivity of remanence to coercive force ratio (Hcr/Hc: 1.53–3.72) and a single magnetic component pointing to origin or a minor viscous component during alternating field (AF) demagnetizations,. Their thermomagnetic responses are broadly group into 3 categories. The type 1 displays near perfect reversible heating/cooling curves with high Curie temperatures of 570–600 °C; other two types have either widely separated (type2) or quite dissimilar (type 3) heating/cooling curves. 76 samples from 19 flows were subjected to ZI (Zero field-Infield) experiments with pTRM and pTRM tail checks. 24 samples from eight flows display reasonable NRM-TRM linearity and positive pTRM checks and satisfy strict reliability criteria. 42 samples from 11 flows do not satisfy the reliability criteria. Samples of reliable PI results are all characterized by reversible thermomagnetic behaviour with excellent stability during AF/thermal treatment. Samples that failed to meet reliability criteria possess irreversible/widely separated thermomagnetic heating/cooling curves or poor stability to AF/thermal treatment but not significantly different from the successful samples in other magnetic properties. Thus, thermomagnetic behaviour and stability to AF/thermal treatment appear to be the overweighing factors than other mineral magnetic characteristics that govern the success rate of thermal PI experiments. The PI values of upper normal (29N) flows are relatively higher than the lower reverse (29R) flows; this suggests minor time lag in cooling of successive flows. The time averaged PI estimate is an important end-Cretaceous contribution from the Indian subcontinent to the poorly represented database of southern hemisphere.