Plasma shielding removes prior magnetization record from impacted rocks near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

ABSTRACT: The shock exposure of the Santa Fe's impact structure in New Mexico is evidenced by large human-size shatter cones. We discovered a new magnetic mechanism that allows a magnetic detection of plasma's presence during the impact processes. Rock fragments from the impactites were once magnetized by a geomagnetic field. Our novel approach, based on Neel's theory, revealed more than an order of magnitude lower magnetizations in the rocks that were exposed to the shockwave. Here we present a support for a newly proposed mechanism where the shock wave appearance can generate magnetic shielding that allow keeping the magnetic grains in a superparamagnetic-like state shortly after the shock's exposure, and leaves the individual magnetized grains in random orientations, significantly lowering the ov

SUBMITTER: Kletetschka G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8599688 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature