Talk:Paleomagnetism
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with paleomagnetism, theres always been one thing that has confused me somewhat. I wonder what causes the magnetic field to change, and when it does "flip", is it an immediate thing, or is it a gradual thing. wouldnt this also have some sort of a profound effect on nature aswell. im not sure but dont birds have somthing in them that helps them align with north (magnetic) and thus migrate? would be grateful if anyone could answer these questions :)
- I don't know about biological effects but the duration of the "flip" is 2 to 10 thousand years (this is an extremely short time with regards to the geological time scale but a long time when it comes to humans). The cause of the "flip" lies in the liquid outer core (the geodynamo process) and is very much debated. --Octupole
[edit] Missing informations
Trying to find some info about paleomagnetism I stumbled over the cleanup-tag and obliged. I noticed several points:
- although the different remnant magnetisations are described quite well, there are no informations about the method of measuring it. I laid down the outlines in the source, but I'm only a poor, lonesome geologist
- there was some strange info on early misgivings of the methods, which I tried to change into a section about the historical development of the method and its application
- there are no real examples of the application of paleomagnetic measurements
- there is no word about the geophysical theories about the reasons for the magnetic field to change
- there is no word about apparent directional change, i.e. due to plate tectonic movements.
