Do any mass extinctions correlate with magnetic reversals?
No. There is no evidence of a correlation between mass extinctions and magnetic pole reversals.
Earth’s magnetic field and its atmosphere protect us from solar radiation. It’s not clear whether a weak magnetic field during a polarity transition would allow enough solar radiation to reach the Earth's surface that it would cause extinctions. But reversals happen rather frequently--every million years or so--compared to mass extinctions, which occur every hundred million years or so.
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Why measure the magnetic field at the Earth's surface? Wouldn't satellites be better suited for space-weather studies?
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The Chesapeake Bay impact structure
About 35 million years ago, during late Eocene time, a 2-mile-wide asteroid or comet smashed into Earth in what is now the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The oceanic impact vaporized, melted, fractured, and (or) displaced the target rocks and sediments and sent billions of tons of water, sediments, and rocks into the air. Glassy particles of...
Powars, David S.; Edwards, Lucy E.; Gohn, Gregory S.; Horton, J. Wright
The Boulder magnetic observatory
The Boulder magnetic observatory has, since 1963, been operated by the Geomagnetism Program of the U.S. Geological Survey in accordance with Bureau and national priorities. Data from the observatory are used for a wide variety of scientific purposes, both pure and applied. The observatory also supports developmental projects within the...
Love, Jeffrey J.; Finn, Carol A.; Pedrie, Kolby L.; Blum, Cletus C.
Monitoring the Earth's dynamic magnetic field
The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey's Geomagnetism Program is to monitor the Earth's magnetic field. Using ground-based observatories, the Program provides continuous records of magnetic field variations covering long timescales; disseminates magnetic data to various governmental, academic, and private institutions; and conducts research...
Love, Jeffrey J.; Applegate, David; Townshend, John B.
How to build a model illustrating sea-floor spreading and subduction
This report describes how to build a model of the outer 300 km (180 miles) of the Earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics, including sea-floor spreading, the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor, transform faulting, thrust faulting, subduction, and volcanism. In...
Lahr, J. C.
Dinosaurs, facts and fiction
Litwin, Ronald J.; Weems, Robert E.; Holtz, Thomas R.
Chicxulub impact event; computer animations and paper models
Alpha, T.R.; Galloway, John P.; Starratt, S.W.
This dynamic earth: the story of plate tectonics
In the early 1960s, the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics started a revolution in the earth sciences. Since then, scientists have verified and refined this theory, and now have a much better understanding of how our planet has been shaped by plate-tectonic processes. We now know that, directly or indirectly, plate tectonics...
Kious, W. Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I.
Subsurface Magma Triggers Earth’s Most Severe Extinction
Subsurface magma intrusions (sills), rather than surface lava flows, may have triggered the Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event approximately 252 million years ago.
Mapping a Space-Weather Menace to Electric-Power Grids
New strides have been made toward quantifying how geomagnetic storms can interfere with the nation’s electric-power grid systems.
EarthWord – Tertiary
The Tertiary is a system of rocks, above the Cretaceous and below the Quaternary, that defines the Tertiary Period of geologic time. T
"Mutant" Fossils Reveal Toxic Metals May Have Contributed to World’s Largest Extinctions
Toxic metals such as iron, lead and arsenic may have helped cause mass extinctions in the world’s oceans millions of years ago, according to recent research from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Center for Scientific Research, France; and Ghent University, Belgium.
A Modern Compass Improves Oil Production
By using the Earth's magnetic field, combined with new innovative technology, oil and gas drilling companies are increasing oilfield productivity while reducing development costs and environmental impacts.
USGS, NOAA Mark 50 Years of Geomagnetic Research at Corbin, Va.
On May 23, 1956, a research center and observatory opened at Corbin, Va. to continuously monitor the Earth's magnetic field. It was charged by Congress "to enhance geomagnetic field studies and monitoring programs in support of scientific, general public, basic and national security needs of the United States."
Comet that triggered mass extinction was much larger than originally thought...
Minuscule fossil animal teeth, known as conodonts, indicate that a 370-million-year-old comet that slammed into Nevada could be as much as five times larger than scientists initially suspected.
Hazards: Geomagnetic Storms
Space weather can have important consequences for our lives, such as interference with radio communication, GPS systems, electric power grids, the operation and orientation of satellites, oil and gas drilling, and even air travel as high altitude pilots and astronauts can be subjected to enhanced levels of radiation. It is also during magnetic storms that beautiful aurora
Trilobite Fossil (Phacops rana africana)
A fossilized Trilobite, Phacops rana africana, an extinct marine invertebrate. Item originally from Alnif, Morocco.
Earth Science Week, Continued: Geomagnetism and the Self-Sustaining Dynamo Called Earth
USGS scientist Duane Champion explains the Earth's geomagnetic qualities and the potential for and possible consequences of a geomagnetic shift.
PubTalk 3/2007 — Impact!
Piecing together the story of a giant meteorite crater beneath the Atlantic coast
By David S. Powars, Geologist, and R.D. Catchings, Geophysicist
- Buried under Chesapeake Bay is a very well preserved impact structure 56 miles across and more than 2 miles deep
- Following clues from drill holes and seismic imagery, careful
PubTalk 7/2004 — Secrets in Stone
The Role of Paleomagnetism in the Evolution of Plate Tectonic Theory Video Presentation
Presentation of the award-winning USGS video "Secrets in Stone" (35 minutes), introduced by Jack Hillhouse, Research Geophysicist, and followed by a tour of the USGS Paleomagnetics Laboratory
- Crucial discoveries in the early 1960.s were made
Rubens coil in the Rock Magnetics Laboratory in Menlo Park, California
Rubens coil inside the Rock Magnetics Laboratory on the USGS Menlo Park campus. The function of the Rubens coil is to cancel the earth's magnetic field for thermal demagnetization of core samples. It is constructed of nonmagnetic materials and the control unit is place far enough away from the instrument to avoid interference from its metal components.
During the
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Chart showing the Earth’s magnetic field
This is one of five world charts showing the declination, inclination, horizontal intensity, vertical component, and total intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field at mean sea level at the beginning of 2005. The charts are based on the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) main model for 2005 and secular change model for 2005-2010. The IGRF is referenced to the
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Interior of Rock Magnetics Laboratory in the Tarpaper Shack (room 40)
Interior of room 40 inside the tarpaper shacks on the USGS Menlo Park campus, circa 1965. During the early 1960s, three of the key scientists working on the theory of magnetic reversals operated in the Rock Magnetics Laboratory that was housed in these shacks. The Rock Magnetics Laboratory was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994.
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