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– and the newly discovered traces of the planetary magnetosphere reveal that it was surprisingly similar to the invisible structure that still protects Earth today.
This is where rocks can be really useful. When they are still soft as they form, any ferromagnetic materials therein become aligned with external magnetic influences – such as the huge magnetic field that wraps around and runs through Earth. Nichols and her team studied the iron in these ancient rocks to determine the properties of Earth's magnetic field at the time. Their results revealed that the magnetic field strength 3.7 billion years ago was at least 15 microtesla. That's remarkably comparable to the current strength of around 30 microtesla.
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