Using magnetism to characterize and distinguish high coercivity iron oxide and oxyhydroxide minerals in atmospheric dust

Abstract

Natural atmospheric dust samples collected from the American southwest and globally were measured using magnetic methods in order to separate remanence attributed to the high coercivity iron oxide and oxyhydroxide minerals hematite and goethite. Dust collected from mountain snow and dust source areas in nearby arid plains were analyzed using traditional room- and low temperature methods. Additional methods were created to better examine the weak, high coercivity components. Combinations of high fields (2.5-9 T), low temperatures (10-300 K), partial AF demagnetization, and thermal demagnetization to 400 K were implemented to separate each component. Percentages of remanence attributed to magnetite, hematite, and goethite were compared to results found by HIRM (hard isothermal remanent magnetization) and Mössbauer spectroscopy with good correlation and to coercivity unmixing methods without correlation. TRM (thermoremanent magnetization) was found to be an important step in magnetizing a greater portion of the goethite fraction. Further procedures for characterizing nano grain sizes would be illuminating.