A call to a greater understanding of the magnetic properties of the titanomagnetite series

I have had several surprises in preparing my upcoming book, Mineral Magnetism. One is that knowledge of the magnetic properties of the most important solid solution series in rock magnetism, the titanomagnetite series, is so limited. In this presentation, I provide a perspective on the known magnetic properties of the titanomagnetite series and outline briefly what magnetic properties remain unknown. Much work on the titanomagnetites seems to have been driven by the assumption that magnetite and TM60 are the most important members of this series. Even though this assumption is justified, the full range of titanomagnetite compositions is encountered in igneous rocks and sediments derived from them, which makes it important to develop a modern, comprehensive magnetic property framework for the full titanomagnetite series. The future work suggested here is not limited by the ability to produce stoichiometric powder, polycrystalline, or single crystal samples for any part of the titanomagnetite series. Thus, producing an extensive composition- and particle-size-dependent magnetic property framework for the titanomagnetite series using the full range of modern magnetic methods ought not to be as difficult a task as it would be for many other minerals. Such work is much needed to constrain interpretation of the magnetic properties of natural samples.