ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD=20
A decade ago, a trio of geophysicists published a group of papers bas=
ed on=20
their measurements of the remnant magnetism of the 16-million-year-ol=
d=20
layered lava flows at Steens Mountain, Oregon. (SF#45) At that time, =
they=20
claimed that these finely bedded lava flows testified that, during a =
field=20
reversal, the earth's field swung around at the astonishing rate of 3=
=A1 per=20
day! This rate is about one thousand times the current rate of polar =
drift.=20
Mainstream geophysicists could not believe the 3=A1/day figure becaus=
e it=20
implied incredibly rapid changes in the flow of those molten material=
s within=20
the earth that supposedly generate the geomagnetic field. The Steens =
Mountain=20
data were "tabled"; that is, dismissed.=20
The three researchers, though, continued their labors at Steens Mount=
ain and=20
have now offered additional, even more impressive data. They now find=
that=20
the geomagnetic field probably shifted as much as 6=A1 in a single da=
y. Their=20
work has been carried forward so professionally and meticulously that=
other=20
scientists are finding their conclusions harder and harder to dismiss=
..=20
Instead, the search is on for explanations of the rapid field changes=
..
Three possibilities have been advanced -- all of them unpalatable to=
=20
geophysicists:=20
The Steens Mountain rocks are not faithful recorders of the main geom=
agnetic=20
field. Should this be actually so, the whole field of paleomagnetism,=
=20
including plate tectonics, is undermined, for it depends upon similar=
=20
measurements. The earth's molten core can change rapidly, at least in=
some=20
regions, in response to forces still unrecognized. This, of course, i=
s not=20
really a satisfying "explanation." The dynamo theory of the origin of=
the=20
geomagnetic field is incorrect.=20
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