SELECTIVE POST-DEPOSITIONAL REALIGNMENT IN A SYNTHETIC SEDIMENT

Synthetic sediments were deposited as slurries in controlled magnetic fields. After settling, the slurries were turned with respect to the field and dried. A small percentage of the remanet magnetization was associated with grains able to realign in the later field. These grains were the magnetically-hardest fraction. Routine alternating field demagnetization of sediments, usually assumed to remove the magnetic overprints, can thus in fact preferentially remove the earliest signal. © 1979.