Mineral sources of magnetic anomalies: Insights from scanning magnetic microscopy

Development in instrumentation and technology now allows for mapping of magnetic anomalies, caused by spatial variations in magnetization in the source materials, over a wide range of scales, from the millimeter mineral scale to the km crustal scale.

Traditional rock magnetic methods, used to investigate the magnetization in natural rock samples, are bulk measurements, which cannot be directly correlated to the individual mineral phases, or particles.  Scanning magnetic microscopy is a high-resolution mapping technique that allows for detailed investigation of the magnetization in natural rock samples. The technique generates a map of the magnetic field distribution over a planar surface of a rock sample with sub-millimeter resolution that can be used to correlate specific magnetic signals to the underlying mineralogy. This information is vital for an understanding of the origin of rock bulk behavior measured in both the laboratory, and in magnetic surveys.

Here we use 3D magnetic modeling to investigate the sources of the magnetic anomalies mapped over a sample thin section. The oxide grains in the thin sections are modeled using information from optical and electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) to constrain the source geometry, and with magnetic property data. The internal geometry of the oxide mineral phases (exsolution lamellae, intergrowths, symplectites) and compositions are constrained by EMP and TEM. 

Magnetic scans aid in locating the magnetic sources, and resolving the different magnetic components contributing to the bulk rock properties.  By modeling the small-scale variations in the oxides the direction and intensity of the magnetic grains are determined.  Aeromagnetic and ground magnetic data from the sample locations are used in conjunction with thin section magnetic mapping. Thin section results can be up-scaled to compare with ground and aeromagnetic data.