AMS-NRM interferences in the Deccan basalts: Toward an improved understanding of magnetic fabrics in flood basalts

Abstract

The evaluation of flow direction in volcanic rocks is among the most important applications of magnetic fabrics studies. A statistically significant sample set of titanomagnetite-bearing lava flows from the Malwa Plateau, the northern part of the Deccan traps in India, has been investigated for a possible interference of induced and natural remanent magnetization (NRM). The NRM alters the scalar anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) parameter and the orientations of the AMS principal magnetic axes, which are crucial for the evaluation of the flow direction. For cleaning of the NRM component, the lava samples have been demagnetized by use of an alternating field (AF) tumbling demagnetizer (peak fields of 100 mT) as previous studies have shown that static AF demagnetization can bias the results. Samples with normal magnetic fabrics demonstrate a redistribution of their principal axes after the demagnetization. The evaluated flow directions show a more differentiated flow pattern of the Malwa area, which seems to fit better into the regional geological setting. In samples with inverse magnetic fabrics, carrying a higher portion of single-domain particles, AMS principal axes remain unchanged after the demagnetization, indicating that these samples with high coercivity of magnetic carriers are not suitable for geological interpretations. According to these results, we propose that the AMS measurements after tumbling demagnetization give a better reflection of the intrinsic anisotropy of magnetic carriers (at least for samples with normal magnetic fabrics) and therefore a more precise and better reflection of the "actual" mineral fabric. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.