Detrital magnetism in sediments: An examination of some theoretical models

By examining what is believed to be the physical basis of detrital remanent magnetism (DRM) we can set limits to the conditions under which it can occur. For example, detrital magnetism is not likely to be important in a sediment whose magnetic particles are less than 0.1 μ or greater than 50 μ or so in diameter. We can also set in order of importance the forces active in magnetization, and this leads to the conclusion that gravity is generally dominant at the instant of deposition. Both theories of DRM depend on this and are shown to be variants of the same basic theory. Future work should be directed toward the development of an improved form of this theory.