A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today.
A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today.
These results provide the oldest estimate of the strength of Earth's magnetic field derived from whole rock samples, which provide a more accurate and reliable assessment than previous studies which used individual crystals. Earth's magnetic field is generated by mixing of the molten iron in the fluid outer core, driven by buoyancy forces as the inner core solidifies, which create a dynamo. During Earth's early formation, the solid inner core had not yet formed, leaving open questions about how the early magnetic field was sustained. These new results suggest the mechanism driving Earth's early dynamo was similarly efficient to the solidification process that generates Earth's magnetic field today.
The results may also provide new insights into the role of our magnetic field in shaping the development of Earth's atmosphere as we know it, particularly regarding atmospheric escape of gases. A currently unexplained phenomenon is the loss of the unreactive gas xenon from our atmosphere more than 2.5 billion years ago. Xenon is relatively heavy and therefore unlikely to have simply drifted out of our atmosphere.
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