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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics pp 1–8Cite as

Geomagnetic Field, Polarity Reversals

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Introduction: The Discovery of Geomagnetic Reversals

Bernard Brunhes (1906) was the first to measure magnetization directions in rocks that were approximately antiparallel to the present Earth’s field. Brunhes (1906) recorded magnetizations in baked sedimentary rocks that were aligned with reverse magnetization directions in overlying Miocene lavas from central France (Puy de Dome). In so doing, Brunhes (1906) made first use of a field test for primary thermal remanent magnetization (TRM) that is now referred to as the “baked contact” test. Matuyama (1929) was the first to attribute reverse magnetizations in (volcanic) rocks from Japan and China to reversal of geomagnetic polarity, and to differentiate mainly Pleistocene lavas from mainly Pliocene lavas based on the polarity of the magnetization. In this respect, Matuyama (1929) was the first person to use the sequence of geomagnetic reversals as a means of ordering rock sequences.

The reality of geomagnetic reversals was then...

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Acknowledgments

I thank Alain Mazaud for helpful discussions during the writing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat, Unité mixte CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Carlo Laj

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  1. Carlo Laj
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Correspondence to Carlo Laj .

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  1. Seismology, National Geophysical Research Insti, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Laj, C. (2020). Geomagnetic Field, Polarity Reversals. In: Gupta, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_116-1

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