LASER MAGNETOMETER MEASUREMENT OF THE NATURAL REMANENT MAGNETIZATION OF ROCKS

The ability of a laser magnetometer to measure the natural remanent ma gnetization of rocks is experimentally investigated. It is shown that the performance of such a magnetometer permits the rapid measurement o f rock magnetizations of less than 1 A m(-1) in a laboratory without t he need of any magnetic shielding or cryogenic facilities. Moreover, t he laser magnetometer is experimentally shown to be able to measure th e distribution of magnetization in spatially inhomogeneous samples. (C ) 1997 American Institute of Physics.