Abstract
Because measurements of palaeomagnetic intensities (henceforth palaeointensities) are usually time-consuming and the success rate only poor, say, 30–50%, many palaeointensity values are based on as few as three experimental results. In an attempt to improve on this, a technique has been developed using automated equipment which is faster, and which can detect alteration of a sample during measurement, allowing the experiment to be terminated and another sample to be tried. The technique, described here, has been used on a collection of ancient bricks, and the results show the palaeofield at Cambridge (England) to have decreased from about 49 µT in AD 1511 to 42 µT in AD 1758, in good agreement with results using Shaw's method.
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Boyd, M. A new method for measuring palaeomagnetic intensities. Nature 319, 208–209 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/319208a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/319208a0
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