Paleomagnetism

The study of Earth's ancient magnetic field as recorded in rocks and sediments, used to reconstruct past plate positions and field behavior.

Seafloor spreading: The process by which new oceanic crust forms at mid-ocean ridges and moves away from them. Magnetic stripe symmetry across ridges confirmed spreading in 1963.
Thermoremanent magnetization: Magnetization acquired when magnetic minerals cool through their Curie temperature in an ambient field. How lavas record the field direction at the moment they cool.
Juan de Fuca Ridge: A spreading center off the Pacific Northwest whose detailed magnetic surveys became the type example of striped anomalies. The 1966 survey there displayed the symmetric stripes in unmatched detail.
Paleolatitude determination: Using inclination of remanent magnetization to calculate where a rock formed relative to the equator. The standard method for placing ancient continents on the globe.
Geodynamo: The convective motion of liquid iron in Earth's outer core that generates the magnetic field. Every paleomagnetic question ultimately depends on how the dynamo works.
Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis: The 1963 explanation that alternating magnetic polarity stripes record reversals as crust forms and spreads. The hypothesis that turned magnetic stripes into proof of seafloor spreading.
Depositional remanent magnetization: Magnetization acquired when magnetic grains settle in water and align with the ambient field. How sediments record the field, enabling continuous magnetic records.
Indian subcontinent northward migration: The paleomagnetically documented journey of India from southern latitudes to Asia over 100 million years. Paleolatitudes measured from Indian rocks tracked the drift directly.
Geomagnetic polarity time scale: A dated chronology of magnetic reversals spanning the last 160 million years, built largely from seafloor anomalies. The reversal record turned into the master clock for oceanic crust.
Geomagnetic reversal: A flip of Earth's magnetic field polarity, occurring irregularly hundreds of thousands of years apart. Why and how the field reverses is still not fully understood.

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