Quantitative estimates of average geomagnetic axial dipole dominance in deep geological time

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Abstract

A defining characteristic of the recent geomagnetic field is its dominant axial dipole which provides its navigational utility and dictates the shape of the magnetosphere. Going back through time, much less is known about the degree of axial dipole dominance. Here we use a substantial and diverse set of 3D numerical dynamo simulations and recent observation-based field models to derive a power law relationship between the angular dispersion of virtual geomagnetic poles at the equator and the median axial dipole dominance measured at Earth’s surface. Applying this relation to published estimates of equatorial angular dispersion implies that geomagnetic axial dipole dominance averaged over 107–109 years has remained moderately high and stable through large parts of geological time. This provides an observational constraint to future studies of the geodynamo and palaeomagnetosphere. It also provides some reassurance as to the reliability of palaeogeographical reconstructions provided by palaeomagnetism.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Biggin, A.J. Bono, R.K. Meduri, D.G. Sprain, C.J. Davies, C.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1074-3815 Holme, R. Doubrovine, P.V.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2020 . This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.
Dates:	Published: 30 November 2020 Published (online): 30 November 2020 Accepted: 21 October 2020
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2024 15:29
Last Modified:	17 Sep 2024 15:31
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19794-7
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Nature
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41467-020-19794-7
Related URLs:	PubMed URL
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217346

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Quantitative estimates of average geomagnetic axial dipole dominance in deep geological time. (deposited 17 Sep 2024 15:29)
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Quantitative estimates of average geomagnetic axial dipole dominance in deep geological time

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