Paleomagnetic data from Kīlauea volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi

This dataset includes paleomagnetic analyses of lava samples from Kīlauea volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi. Analyses were performed using a cryogenic magnetometer in Menlo Park, California, USA. The data were collected as part of fundamental geologic mapping of the Southwest Rift Zone, East Rift Zone, summit, and south flank regions of Kīlauea volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi. These data (when integrated with geologic mapping, geochronology, and geochemistry) are used to correlate and constrain ages of lava flows across Kīlauea.

Paleomagnetic samples were collected, processed, and interpreted using the methods of McElhinny (1973). Part of these methods is sample selection of lava flow outcrops, and establishing that they have not moved noticeably since acquiring their remanent magnetization. This is subjective to the person collecting the samples. Samples were collected in the field with a handheld, gasoline-powered, 2.5 cm diameter coring drill and oriented using both sun and magnetic compasses. Generally, 8 to 12 cylindrical samples of 10-cm-length were collected at each site. Cores that are 2.2 cm long were cut from the larger cylinders and measured using an automatic cryogenic magnetometer at the U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park facility and subjected to progressive alternating-field demagnetization to remove secondary components of magnetization. An isothermal remanent magnetization resulting in high magnetic sample intensities caused by proximal lightning strikes was the principal source of secondary magnetization. Care was taken during alternating-field demagnetization to populate the lowest coercivity intervals of samples with multiple steps to establish the earliest part of the arc connecting the direction of the sample’s fundamental isothermal remanent magnetization overprint to the direction of the original thermoremanent magnetization; two vectors in space define a great circle arc. This caution improves the precision of the intersection of separate sample arcs of the planes solution for a sample from sites (<5 percent) for which AF demagnetization cannot ultimately separate the isothermal remanent magnetization and thermoremanent magnetization (Kirschvink, 1980). The characteristic direction of remanent magnetization for each site was calculated using Fisher statistics on directional data from individual core demagnetization line fits using vector component diagrams, plane fits on equal-area diagrams, or mixtures of lines and planes data (Kirschvink, 1980).

Kirschvink, J.L., 1980, The least-square line and plane and the analysis of paleomagnetic data: Geophysical Journal International, v. 62, p. 699–718.

McElhinny, M.W., 1973, Paleomagnetism and plate tectonics: Cambridge, United Kingdom, University Press, 368 p.