Magnetic Methods Essay

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Shell Intensive Training Programme 5.0 Magnetic Methods 5.1 Principles and Theoretical Background Magnetic surveying investigates the subsurface geology of an area by detecting magnetic anomalies within the Earth’ magnetic field, which are caused by the s magnetic properties of the underlying rocks. Most rock-forming minerals are nonmagnetic but a few rock types contain sufficient amounts of magnetic minerals, which can impart a magnetism to their host rocks and thus produce detectable magnetic anomalies. Rock magnetism has both magnitude and direction, the latter being determined by the host rocks position relative to the past and present magnetic poles of the Earth. This is the olderst geophysical prospecting method as Von Wrede used variations in the earth’ field to locate deposits of magnetic ore in 1843. s Earlier on, in the 16th century, Sir Gilbert found that the earth behaves like a NorthSouth permanent Bar magnet. 5.1.1 Principles of Magnetism A bar magnet is surrounded by a magnetic flux, which flows from one end of the magnet to the other and can be mapped from the directions assumed by a small compass needle suspended within it. The points within the magnet where the magnetic flux converges are the poles of the magnet. Common magnets exhibits a pair of poles and are therefore referred to as dipoles. A freely suspended bar magnet will align itself parallel to the local flux of the Earth’ magnetic north pole termed the s north-seeking or positive pole and this is negative pole at the other end of the magnet. All substances are magnetic at an atomic scale. The phenomenon in which a material acquires a magnetization when placed within a magnetic field but loses it when it is removed from the field is termed induced magnetization or magnetic polarization. It results from the alignment of the elementary dipoles within the material parallel to the
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