News from Earth's magnetic fieldDecember 21, 2007It is widely known that the geomagnetic field shields our planet against highly energetic cosmic particles. The importance of the magnetic field for answering geological, tectonic or even archaeological questions is less known. Where do large, very old meteorite craters exist like, for example, the one that might have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs? How did the continents move about the globe through geological times? How does the hidden subterranean structure of a volcano look like, i.e. how high is the danger of eruption" Where had towns and buildings of ancient civilizations been located, which have long since been destroyed? The study of anomalies of the magnetic field of the Earth's crust and upper mantle can provide significant indications to answer such questions. Detailed global mapping of magnetic anomalies has only recently become possible by integrating huge amount of data from different platforms. Mioara Mandea of GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and Erwan Thébault of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) have compiled an overview over the Earth's magnetic field and current research topics on magnetic anomalies in a booklet published in cooperation with UNESCO by the Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW, Paris). "This summarized state of knowledge is based on current observations, models and interpretations of the Earth's magnetic field and also makes clear that many aspects of the field will remain future topics of research. The Swarm satellite mission planned for 2010 will serve this purpose," says Professor Reinhard Hüttl, chair of the GFZ executive board. The booklet also is a complement to the recently published World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map. This is the first global compilation of all available information on magnetic anomalies, based on more than 50 years of data from aeromagnetic and marine surveys, on ground measurements, on high-quality, high-resolution satellite data, like CHAMP of GFZ, and supplemented by values derived from an ocean bottom anomaly model based on crustal ages. Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres |
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| Related Magnetic Field Current Events and Magnetic Field News Articles New study confirms exotic electric properties of graphene First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire. New explanation for nature's hardiest life form Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. A bubbling ball of gas The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all. German high-school students involved in an astronomical research project This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes a somewhat unusual research article because it is co-authored by German high-school students. New TMS clinic offers noninvasive treatment for major depression Rush University Medical Center has opened the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Clinic to offer patients suffering from major depression a safe, effective, non-drug treatment. Carbon atmosphere discovered on neutron star Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object. High-performance plasmas may make reliable, efficient fusion power a reality In the quest to produce nuclear fusion energy, researchers from the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have recently confirmed long-standing theoretical predictions that performance, efficiency and reliability are simultaneously obtained in tokamaks, the leading magnetic confinement fusion device, operating at their performance limits. A special issue on the International Workshop of the 2008 Solar Total Eclipse On August 1, 2008 a total solar eclipse was visible within a narrow corridor that traversed from North America to China. Magnetic mixing creates quite a stir Sandia researchers have developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated spaces. NIST physicists turn to radio dial for finer atomic matchmaking Investigating mysterious data in ultracold gases of rubidium atoms, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland and their collaborators have found that properly tuned radio-frequency waves can influence how much the atoms attract or repel one another, opening up new ways to control their interactions. More Magnetic Field Current Events and Magnetic Field News Articles |
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