A field like today's? The strength of the geomagnetic field 1.1 billion years ago

Abstract

Palaeomagnetic data from ancient rocks are one of the few types of observational data that can be brought to bear on the long-term evolution of Earth's core. A recent compilation of palaeointensity estimates from throughout Earth history has been interpreted to indicate that Earth's magnetic field strength increased in the Mesoproterozoic (between 1.5 and 1.0 billion years ago), with this increase taken to mark the onset of inner core nucleation. However, much of the datawithin the Precambrian palaeointensity database are from Thellier-style experiments with non-ideal behaviour that manifests in results such as double-slope Arai plots. Choices madewhen interpreting these datamay significantly change conclusions about long-termtrends in the intensity of Earth's geomagnetic field. In this study, we present new palaeointensity results from volcanics of the ~1.1-billion-year-old North American Midcontinent Rift.While most of the results exhibit non-ideal double-slope or sagging behaviour in Arai plots, some flows have more ideal single-slope behaviour leading to palaeointensity estimates that may be some of the best constraints on the strength of Earth's field for this time. Taken together, new and previously published palaeointensity data from the Midcontinent Rift yield a median field strength estimate of 56.0 ZAm2-very similar to the median for the past 300 Myr. These field strength estimates are distinctly higher than those for the preceding billion years (Ga) after excluding ca. 1.3 Ga data that may be biased by non-ideal behaviour-consistent with an increase in field strength in the late Mesoproterozoic. However, given that ~90 per cent of palaeointensity estimates from 1.1 to 0.5 Ga come from the Midcontinent Rift, it is difficult to evaluate whether these high values relative to those estimated for the preceding billion years are the result of a stepwise, sustained increase in dipole moment. Regardless, palaeointensity estimates from the Midcontinent Rift indicate that the surface expression of Earth's geomagnetic field at ~1.1 Ga may have been similar to that on the present-day Earth.