Re NS reversals

[LUDWIK KOWALSKI <KOWALSKIL@alpha.montclair.edu>]

REPOSTING BEACAUSE THE MESSAGE WAS BUTCHERED (BY CUT-PASTING IT).

OK, I found it. The claim is that the direction of B was changing, at=
=20
least in one place, at the rate of 6 degree per day.

And this was published in Nature !!!

1) Coe, R.S., et al; "New Evidence for Extraordinarily Rapid=20
   Change of the Geomagnetic Field during a Reversal,"=20
   Nature, 374:687, 1995.=20

2) Merrill, Ronald T.; "Principle of Least Astonishment,"=20
   Nature, 374:674,

Here is how it was reported by a studen (not my student). See below.
Do we have a geophysicist who can comment on these findings?

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ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD=20

A decade ago, a trio of geophysicists published a group of papers=
=20
based on their measurements of the remnant magnetism of the 16-millio=
n-
year-old layered lava flows at Steens Mountain, Oregon. (SF#45) At th=
at=20
time, they claimed that these finely bedded lava flows testified that=
,=20
during a field reversal, the earth's field swung around at the=20
astonishing rate of 3=A1 per day! This rate is about one thousand tim=
es the=20
current rate of polar drift.=20

Mainstream geophysicists could not believe the 3=A1/day figure becaus=
e=20
it implied incredibly rapid changes in the flow of those molten mater=
ials=20
within the earth that supposedly generate the geomagnetic field. The=
=20
Steens Mountain data were "tabled"; that is, dismissed.=20

The three researchers, though, continued their labors at Steens Mount=
ain=20
and have now offered additional, even more impressive data. They now =
find=20
that the geomagnetic field probably shifted as much as 6=A1 in a sing=
le day.=20
Their work has been carried forward so professionally and meticulousl=
y that=20
other scientists are finding their conclusions harder and harder to d=
ismiss.
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=20
geomagnetic field. Should this be actually so, the whole field of=
=20
paleomagnetism, including plate tectonics, is undermined, for it depe=
nds=20
upon similar measurements. The earth's molten core can change rapidly=
, at=20
least in some regions, in response to forces still unrecognized. This=
, of=20
course, is not really a satisfying "explanation." The dynamo theory o=
f the=20
origin of the geomagnetic field is incorrect.=20

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