期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2002
卷号：99
期号：22
页码：14020-14025
DOI：10.1073/pnas.222373499
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：If relationships exist between the frequency of geomagnetic reversals and the morphology, secular variation, and intensity of Earth's magnetic field, they should be best expressed during superchrons, intervals tens of millions of years long lacking reversals. Here we report paleomagnetic and paleointensity data from lavas of the Cretaceous Normal Polarity Superchron that formed at high latitudes near the tangent cylinder that surrounds the solid inner core. The time-averaged field recorded by these lavas is remarkably strong and stable. When combined with global results available from lower latitudes, these data define a time-averaged field that is overwhelmingly dominated by the axial dipole (octupole components are insignificant). These observations suggest that the basic features of the geomagnetic field are intrinsically related. Superchrons may reflect times when the nature of core-mantle boundary heat flux allows the geodynamo to operate at peak efficiency.
