The influence of the chemical magnetization of oceanic basalts on determining the geomagnetic field Paleointensity by the Thellier Method

Dredged samples of basalts from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and the Red Sea Rift that are 0.2 to 1 Ma in age are used to show the possibility of separating the thermoremanent and chemical remanent magnetization components in oceanic basalts by the conventional Thellier–Coe method. It is found that the decay rate of chemical remanent magnetization during exposure of basalt samples with Curie temperatures of $T_{c}=145$ and 240$^{\circ}$C at temperatures of 340–380$^{\circ}$C in the air was less than the formation of partial thermoremanent magnetization during the experiments using the Thellier–Coe method by a factor of 4.5–5; in contrast, for thermoremanent magnetization these rates almost coincide. Using this fact, we estimated the contributions from chemical remanent and thermoremanent magnetization components into the natural magnetization of basalts and, based on the thermoremanent magnetization component, defined the paleointensity of the geomagnetic field for the epoch when these basalts formed. In basalts from the southern MAR that are 1 Ma in age, the contribution of chemical remanent magnetization to the natural remanent magnetization is 60% to 80%; in those of 0.35 Ma it was less than 50%; in those of 0.2 Ma it was less than 10%. The calculated values of the virtual magnetic dipole moment of the Earth were close to those that have been published in the literature.