12th IRM Conference on Rock Magnetism

Virtual Meeting, June 1- 4, 2021

Tate Hall in the Spring
John T. Tate Hall of Physics, home to the IRM

General Information

Iron minerals in the rocks of Earth's crust, its sedimentary cover and within speleothems contain fossilized records of ancient geomagnetic field activity, and in their physical and chemical characteristics they hold evidence of geological and environmental processes and events that have affected them. This conference will explore the state of the art in magnetic studies of natural materials, examine methods for extracting paleomagnetic and paleoenvironmental information through magnetic analysis, and assess what such studies are telling us about the history and workings of our planet and the solar system. 

Dates and Session Format

The 12th IRM Conference on Rock Magnetism will be held virtually from June 1- 4 2021. The meeting will be hosted over zoom with four three-hour oral sessions, two keynote speakers and a poster session. The oral sessions are by invitation only, but we welcome poster presentations on any topics in rock and paleomagnetism. The conference format is designed to be interactive and in-depth, allowing extended periods of open discussion following invited lead talks on selected topics.

Oral Session Information

There will be four oral sessions this year:

  • Anisotropy and Applications
    • Conveners: Suzanne McEnroe (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and France Lagroix (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris)
  • Environmental Proxies and Magnetism
    • Conveners: Andrew Roberts (Australian National University) and Anna Lindquist (Macalester College)
  • Speleothem Magnetism
    • Conveners: Joshua Feinberg (Institute for Rock Magnetism) and Ricardo Trindade (Universidade de São Paulo)
  • Advances in Instrumentation and Methods
    • Conveners: Julie Bowles (University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee) and Sonia Tikoo (Stanford University)

Keynote Speakers:

Barbara Maher (Lancaster University, UK): "Environmental Magnetism: Bonanza not Bandwagon."

R. Lawrence ‘Larry’ Edwards (University of Minnesota, USA): "U-Th Dating of Cave Deposits."

 

Session Schedule and Speakers (times in US Central Time)

Tuesday, June 1

  • 7:00 am- Bruce Moskowitz (Institute for Rock Magnetism, USA): Welcome (Zoom)
  • 7:10 am- Maxwell Brown (Institute for Rock Magnetism, USA): Technical briefing (Zoom)
  • 7:15 am- Barbara Maher Keynote Talk: "Environmental Magnetism: Bonanza not Bandwagon." (Zoom)
  • 8:15- 8:30 am- Break
  • Anisotropy and Applications (Zoom)
    • 8:30 am- Andrea Biedermann (University of Bern, Switzerland): "Characterizing Anisotropy of Ferromagnetic Grains: Methods and Challenges."
    • 9:15 am- Ken Kodama (Lehigh University, USA) and Dario Bilardello (Institute for Rock Magnetism, USA): "The Anisotropy Correction for Inclination Shallowing- Historical Perspective and Future Trends."
    • 10:00- 10:15 am- Break
    • 10:15 am- Stuart Gilder (LMU- Munich, Germany): "Estimating relative paleointensity from remanence anisotropy."
    • 10:45 am- David Finn (University of Leicester, UK): "Switching Field Angular Dependence Speaks Volumes about the Measurement of Laboratory Imparted Remanences."

Wednesday, June 2

  • 11:00 am- 1:00 pm- Poster Session 1 (Gather)
  • Environmental Proxies and Magnetism (Zoom)
    • 7:00 pm- Dave Heslop (Australian National University, Australia): "Magnetic Unmixing of Natural Magnetic Mineral Assemblages — Challenges to Approximating Reality"
    • 7:45 pm- Sarah Slotznick (Dartmouth College, USA): " “Deep-time” Environmental Magnetism: Untangling Redox Conditions, Diagenesis, and Metamorphism."
    • 8:30 pm- Zhaoxia Jiang (Ocean University of China): "The influence of Al on the magnetic properties and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy of hematite."

Thursday, June 3

  • 7:00 am- Larry Edwards Keynote Talk: "FU-Th Dating of Cave Deposits." (Zoom)
  • 8:00- 8:15 am- Break
  • Speleothem Magnetism (Zoom)
    • 8:15 am- Yu-Min Chou (Southern University of Science and Technology, China): "A Challenge of Paleomagnetism Research - Speleothem Magnetism."
    • 8:45 am- Yuval Burtsyn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel): "Holocene palaeohydrological variations in the Eastern Mediterranean inferred from magnetic and isotopic properties of speleothems from Soreq Cave, Israel"
    • 9:10- 9:25 am- Break
    • 9:25 am- Elena Zanella (University of Turin, Italy): "Speleothem Magnetism's Contribution to Paleoenvironmental Changes: the Rio Martino and its Many Applications."
    • 9:55 am- Roger Fu (Harvard, USA): "High-Resolution Speleothem Mapping Using the QDM."

Friday, June 4

  • Advances in Instrumentation and Methods (Zoom)
    • 11:00 am- Ramon Egli (Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Austria): "FORC & Co: Recent Advances, Pitfalls, and Future Developments."
    • 11:45 am- Clara Maurel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA): "Bridging the Gap Between Spacecraft Magnetometry Investigations and Laboratory Experiments Using Iron Meteorites."
    • 12:15- 12:45 pm- Break
    • 12:45 pm- David Schuler (Applied Physics Systems, USA): “Optically Pumped Magnetometers for Rock Measurements.”
    • 1:30 pm- Michael Grappone (University of Liverpool, UK): "Improving the Productivity of Paleomagnetic Laboratories: On-going Advancements and Challenges in Paleomagnetic Instrumentation."
  • 2:00- 2:15 pm- Break
  • 2:15- 4:15 pm- Poster Session 2 (Gather)

All presentations have been uploaded to our YouTube channel. There you will find each session, including the 3 minute poster presentations, organized as playlists.

All questions about the meeting can be addressed to Maxwell Brown at irm@umn.edu. We are looking forward to seeing many of you online.

Poster Sessions and Conference Participants

Here you will find the schedule for the Poster Sessions, including all poster presenters, and the list of all Conference Participants. Note that both poster sessions are held on Gather, whereas the talks will be on Zoom.