NanoPaleoMagnetism

I couldn’t resist posting this tantalising first image obtained by new group member Josh Einsle – a 3D reconstruction at the nanometre scale of metallic iron particles inside a grain of dusty olivine from the Semarkona meteorite. The image represents a 9.6 µm by 8.0 µm by 5.24 µm volume (red numbers are in nm), that has been sliced through and imaged every 20 nm using a dual-beam FIB. From this reconstruction we aim to extract particle sizes and shapes, and use these as input into micromagnetic simulations. This will allow us to fully characterise the remanence carrying potential of these grains and ultimately lead to a quantitative model of their paleomagnetic properties.

Fe nanoparticles in dusty olivine: carriers of magnetic signals from the early solar system?

Well the usual rush to submit abstracts for the AGU meeting is finally over. The NPM project will be very well represented this year, with four abstracts submitted directly from the group, and another two with an NPM component submitted by our collaborators in MIT and the IRM. Among our contributions will be post doc Nono Lascu, presenting the first results to come out of our new MTJ scanning magnetic microscope, newly arrived post doc Josh Einsle, presenting the first FIB slice-and-view tomography results of magnetic carriers in natural dusty olivine, PhD student James Bryson, presenting the culmination of his thesis work on nanopaleomagnetism of the pallasite and IVA parent bodies, and myself describing a major milestone for the computational side of the ERC project: FORCulator – a tool for simulating the FORC diagram of strongly interacting particles. It promises to be a busy meeting. See you in SF!

Rich