Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C510159/1
The role of magnetostatic interactions on palaeo and environmental magnetic signals: quantification using nanoimprint lithography.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor W Williams, University of Edinburgh, Sch of Geosciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor AP Roberts, University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor C Wilkinson, University of Glasgow, Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Grant held at:
- University of Edinburgh, Sch of Geosciences
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Freshwater
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Pollution and Waste
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Tropospheric Processes
- Properties Of Earth Materials
- Mantle & Core Processes
- Palaeoenvironments
- Abstract:
- Most people will be familiar with magnetic recording through their use in magnetic audio or video tape recorders, or through the hard drives used to store information on computers. A casual glance at the tape in a video recorder shows it to be a shiny dark grey plastic coated tape. If you were to place this under a microscope you would see that underneath the surface plastic coating, the tape has a uniform layer of tiny elongated magnetic particles The video tape, in common with all magnetic recording devices, consists of an array of magnetic particles that have the ability to record, and re-record magnetic fields. There have been huge improvements made to magnetic recording media over the last 50 years. This is most evident in the massive increase in storage capacity of hard drives in computers. The physical size of the hard disk has not increased, but the capacity of the disk drive to hold more information has One way in which this increase in recording density has been achieved is to make the individual magnetic particles more reliable as a recorder of magnetic fields. If we simply pack more magnetic particles onto the disk drive surface they will eventually be touching each other. In this case neighbouring magnetic particles will behave in the same way as two neighbouring bar magnets. Neighbouring bar magnets will experience a strong magnetic force between them, which makes them align anti-parallel to each other. Small magnetic particles on the surface of a disk will behave in exactly the same way. They will see a much stronger force from their neighbours than they do from the magnetic field they are supposed to be recording. In order to increase the amount of information we can record, we should not simply add in more magnetic grains or increase the size of the grains (increasing the grain size makes each grain act like neighbouring bar magnets), but rather we should decrease the number so that grains are separated from each other by a distance similar to the size of the grains themselves. Magnetic particles are not just found in man made materials, they occur in a huge variety of natural materials. Magnetic particles are very common in rocks, and muds that form at the bottom of lakes or seas. In most cases, however, the magnetism in these materials is weak, and these can normally be detected only with the use of very sensitive instruments. These naturally occurring magnetic materials record the magnetic field that is present when the rocks are formed. When a volcano erupts producing molten lava, the lava will eventually cool to form rock which will contain a record of the magnetic field direction and intensity at that location. This field will of course be the magnetic field of the earth. Examining the magnetic recording in rocks of different ages can therefore tell us about the history of the earth's magnetic field. Analysis of lots of similar information from around the world can tell us how the field is generated deep inside the earth. Rocks also record the movements of the continents over thousands of millions of years. More careful analysis of magnetic minerals can also tell us how the climate has varied in the past. Rocks will usually contain a very small percentage of magnetic grains, but it may be that the grains are all clumped together. It may also be that the magnetic grains are so large that they contain interacting magnets inside them. Unfortunately, unlike man made recording materials, we cannot choose the type of magnetic particles that are inside a rock. It is not usually obvious which rocks contain the good recorders and which are bad. We need to investigate exactly what happens when we get a large number of interacting grains. We can then develop some tests to identify characteristics of such interacting magnetic particles so that they can be corrected for when we try to identify the true magnetic recordings of the earth's field.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C510159/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £255,207
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £118,436 | £15,639 | £33,457 | £54,481 | £33,196 |
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