Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey
Paleomagnetic Inclination Flattening Corrections of IODP/ODP/DSDP Cores by Comparing Inclination Distributions to the TK03.GAD Model: Implications for Paleo-latitudes and Plate Tectonics

Abstract

This research proposal develops a new technique of correcting the paleomagnetic inclination flattening error and determining paleo-latitude by using only inclination data. The technique has been tested on synthetic data and demonstrates promising results. propose to utilize available high-resolution paleomagnetic data combined with the proposed new technique on cores from Sites 1218 and 1219 of ODP Leg 199, to determine the paleo-latitudes of equatorial Pacific from middle Eocene to middle Miocene. I also plan to use the currently available E/I method and rock magnetic approaches to confirm the results of the new technique. These newly obtained paleolatitudes will provide critical information to apply necessary modifications to the current Pacific plate rotation models. This new technique can be used on all IODP/ODP/DSDP cores to estimate their paleo-latitudes accurately and precisely, which will provide us better understanding of plate motions and the tectonic processes of the Earth.

Biography

I was born and grew up in Wuhan, a city in central China, along the Yangtze River. I pursued my B.S. in Solid Geophysics at Peking University in Beijing, the capital. During the last three years of my undergraduate studies, I worked as a research assistant at the Paleomagnetism and Geochronology Lab in the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working on the correlations between long-term geomagnetic paleointensity variations and mantle plume activities, as well as developing various instruments for paleomagnetic experiments. I went to Rutgers University in 2007 for my Ph.D., working with Professor Dennis Kent, whose broad research interests and vast knowledge on Geosciences helped me to develop this proposed study for Schlanger Fellowship. We are hoping to use ocean drilling cores to reconstruct the tectonic histories of the Pacific plate by correcting paleomagnetic inclination flattening errors. At the same time, for my dissertation, I am also working on the mean paleointensities from equatorial lavas for the last five million years.