Joseph L. Kirschvink's research while affiliated with California Institute of Technology and other places
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Publications (314)
A second K/Pg boundary interval in the northern sector of the Antarctic Peninsula on Vega Island has been proposed, yet current temporal resolution of these strata prohibits direct testing of this hypothesis. To not only test for the existence of a K/Pg boundary on Vega Island but also provide increased age resolution for the associated vertebrate...
Transient appearances of oxygen have been inferred before the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) [∼2.3 billion years (Ga) ago] based on redox-sensitive elements such as Mo and S—most prominently from the ∼2.5-Ga Mount McRae Shale in Western Australia. We present new spatially resolved data including synchrotron-based x-ray spectroscopy and secondary ion...
Due to a dearth of data from high‐latitude paleomagnetic sites, it is not currently clear if the geocentric axial dipole (GAD) hypothesis accurately describes the long‐term behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes. Here we present new paleomagnetic and paleointensity data from the James Ross Island (JRI) volcanic group, located on the An...
Late Devonian time was a period of rapid upheaval in the Earth system, including climate change, sea level changes, widespread ocean anoxia, and the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction; the cause(s) of these changes remain(s) uncertain. The Lennard Shelf of the Canning Basin in Western Australia contains carbonate reef sections spanning much of the...
True polar wander (TPW), or planetary reorientation, is well documented for other planets and moons and for Earth at present day with satellites, but testing its prevalence in Earth’s past is complicated by simultaneous motions due to plate tectonics. Debate has surrounded the existence of Late Cretaceous TPW ca. 84 million years ago (Ma). Classic...
Recent magnetostratigraphic works from different areas of the James Ross Basin have expanded on chronostratigraphic studies previously based on ammonite, palynomorph and nanoplankton biostratigraphy, and strontium isotope stratigraphy. Here we present a new magnetostratigraphy of Coniacian through Campanian marine sedimentary rocks from Hidden Lake...
A critical shortage of respirators, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) exists due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular need are N95 respirators, which use meltblown microfibers of charged polypropylene. An intensive search is underway to find reliable methods to lengthen the useful life of these normally disposable units. Recent...
A critical shortage of respirators, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) exists across all sectors of society afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, placing medical staff and service workers at heightened risk and hampering efforts to reduce transmission rates. Of particular need are the N95 medical face respirators that filter 95% of a...
A broad range of organisms, from prokaryotes to higher animals, have the ability to sense and utilize Earth's geomagnetic field—a behavior known as magnetoreception. Although our knowledge of the physiological mechanisms of magnetoreception has increased substantially over recent decades, the origin of this behavior remains a fundamental question i...
Cape Marsh, located on the eastern end of Robertson Island to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula, exposes an isolated outcrop of Late Cretaceous sedimentary strata. The outcrop is approximately 120 km southwest of the much better-studied exposures of similar age on and around James Ross Island (JRI); as such, its remoteness has complicated both lo...
Orthoquartzite detrital source regions in the Cordilleran interior yield clast populations with distinct spectra of paleomagnetic inclinations and detrital zircon ages that can be used to trace the provenance of gravels deposited along the western margin of the Cordilleran orogen. An inventory of characteristic remnant magnetizations (CRMs) from >7...
Archeological finds from Mesoamerica and elsewhere in the New World have yielded intriguing yet inconclusive evidence for an early appreciation of magnetism among Native American peoples. Here we use scanning and handheld magnetometers to map the distribution of magnetization on eleven basalt potbelly sculptures from the Monte Alto site, now housed...
Two paleomagnetic poles of 80 and 75 Ma have been computed from 191 to 123 paleomagnetic samples, respectively, of the marine sedimentary units of the Upper Cretaceous Marambio Group exposed in the James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Paleomagnetic behaviors during stepwise thermal demagnetization and rock magnetic analyses indicate that magneti...
To evaluate the mechanics of mid‐Proterozoic environmental iron transport and deposition, we coupled microscale textural and bulk rock magnetic techniques to study the ~1.4 Ga lower Belt group, Belt Supergroup, Montana and Idaho. We identified a pyrrhotite‐siderite isograd that marks metamorphic iron‐bearing mineral reactions beginning in sub‐green...
Despite intense interest, little is known about the long-term strength and structure of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes. Recent studies in Iceland, McMurdo Sound, and other localities have greatly advanced our understanding of this topic. However, a general lack of data has left much of the polar geomagnetic field shrouded in mystery.
Here...
The James Ross Basin, in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, exposes which is probably the world thickest and most complete Late Cretaceous sedimentary succession of southern high latitudes. Despite its very good exposures and varied and abundant fossil fauna, precise chronological determination of its infill is still lacking. We report results from...
Abstract Investigations of superchrons are the key to understanding long-term changes of the geodynamo and the mantle’s controlling role. Granitic rocks could be good recorders of deep-time geomagnetic field behavior, but paleomagnetic measurements on whole-rock granitic samples are often disturbed by alterations like weathering, and the presence o...
Magnetoreception, the perception of the geomagnetic field, is a sensory modality well-established across all major groups of vertebrates and some invertebrates, but its presence in humans has been tested rarely, yielding inconclusive results. We report here a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength...
Magnetoreception, the perception of the geomagnetic field, is a sensory modality well-established across all major groups of vertebrates and some invertebrates, but its presence in humans has been tested rarely, yielding inconclusive results. We report here a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength...
Significance
Ice crystallization affects processes as divergent as cloud formation and rain seeding, to the growth, transportation, and preservation of the human food supply. Recent estimates show that nearly 40% of all food is lost between the farm and the kitchen, and much of this is due to cellular damage from freezing. The discovery that nanocr...
Here we present paleointensity results from within the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), which is a large non-dipole feature of the geomagnetic field. Within the area of the SAA, anomalous declinations, inclinations, and intensities are observed. Our results suggest that the SAA has been present for at least 5 Ma. This is orders-of-magnitude greater th...
High-resolution, time-significant correlations are integral to meaningful stratigraphic frameworks in depositional systems but may be difficult to achieve using traditional sequence stratigraphic or biostratigraphic approaches alone, particularly in geologically complex settings. In steep, reefal carbonate margin-to-slope systems, such correlations...
A magnetostratigraphic study was carried out in the SE sector of the James Ross Basin (Antarctica). The magnetostratigraphy was obtained from five columns located in the SE sector of James Ross Island and in Snow Hill Island and belong to a deep marine sedimentary succession that constitute the Marambio Group (Upper Cretaceous). The main chronologi...
Abstract:
We study the transition from passive margin to foreland basin sedimentation now exposed in the High Zagros belt to provide chronological constraints on the initial stage of Arabia-Eurasia collision and closure of the Neo-Tethys. We performed magnetostratigraphy and strontium isotope stratigraphy along two sections near the Zagros suture...
Ever since their discovery nearly 50 years ago, geomagnetic superchrons have been a puzzle for the geophysical community. Although there have only been a few during Phanerozoic time, Driscoll and Evans (2016) recently proposed multiple superchrons during the Proterozoic. Biggin et al. (2012) suggested that superchrons are the result of low heat flo...
Our recent paper (1) reports an ancient origin of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) before or near the divergence between the phyla Nitrospirae and Proteobacteria, which has implications for the Archean geomagnetic field and paleoenvironment.
Significance
A wide range of organisms sense Earth’s magnetic field for navigation. For some organisms, like magnetotactic bacteria, magnetic particles form inside cells and act like a compass. However, the origin of magnetotactic behavior remains a mystery. We report that magnetotaxis evolved in bacteria during the Archean, before or near the dive...
Problems of endemism and diachronous extinctions make global correlation of coeval strata in the mid Campanian-Maastrichtian of the James Ross Basin problematic. To provide a more precise chronological framework, we present two magnetostratigraphies of Campanian strata from the Rabot Formation that crop out at Hamilton Norte (200 m thick) and Redon...
Determining the history of Earth's dynamo prior to the oldest known well-preserved rock record is one of the ultimate challenges in the field of paleomagnetism. Tarduno et al. (2015) argued that detrital zircons contain records of an active dynamo dating back to 4.2 billion years ago (Ga), 700 million years earlier than previously identified (Biggi...
An outstanding biophysical puzzle is focused on the apparent ability of weak, extremely low-frequency oscillating magnetic fields to enhance cryopreservation of many biological tissues. A recent theory holds that these weak magnetic fields could be inhibiting ice-crystal nucleation on the nanocrystals of biological magnetite (Fe3O4, an inverse cubi...
The redox state of the mid-Proterozoic oceans, lakes, and atmospheres is still debated, but it is vital for understanding the emergence and rise of macroscopic organisms and eukaryotes. The Appekunny Formation, Belt Supergroup, Montana, contains some of these early macrofossils dated between 1.47 Ga and 1.40 Ga and provides a well-preserved record...
High-resolution chronostratigraphic correlation using elemental chemostratigraphy in platform carbonates is typically difficult to achieve. Here, elemental chemostratigraphy is used to correlate between two platform-top, carbonate-dominated field sections from the narrow Lennard Shelf that existed on the NE margin of the Canning Basin, Western Aust...
Charles Darwin suspected that the Cambrian “explosion” might be an artifact of fossil preservation. A more recent, initially controversial hypothesis that repeated true polar wander (TPW) triggered the Ediacaran-Cambrian explosion of animal life has been supported by numerous paleomagnetic and geochronologic refinements. These data imply ∼75° of TP...
It currently is unknown when Earth's dynamo magnetic field originated. Paleomagnetic studies indicate that a field with an intensity similar to that of the present day existed 3.5 billion years ago (Ga). Detrital zircon crystals found in the Jack Hills of Western Australia are some of the very few samples known to substantially predate this time. W...
Among the most important bioenergetic innovations in the history of life was the invention of oxygenic photosynthesis-autotrophic growth by splitting water with sunlight-by Cyanobacteria. It is widely accepted that the invention of oxygenic photosynthesis ultimately resulted in the rise of oxygen by ca. 2.35 Gya, but it is debated whether this occu...
The Late Devonian was a time of major evolutionary change encompassing the fifth largest mass extinction, the Frasnian–Famennian event. Inorder to establish a chronological framework for global correlation before, during, and following the Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction, wecarried out a coupled magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic study of...
Despite their utility for bio- and chemostratigraphy, many carbonate platform sequences have been difficult to analyze using paleomagnetic techniques due to their extraordinarily weak natural remanent magnetizations (NRMs). However, the physical processes of magnetization imply that stable NRMs can be preserved that are many orders of magnitude bel...
Weak radio waves in the medium-wave band are sufficient to disrupt geomagnetic orientation in migratory birds, according to a particularly well-controlled study. But the underlying biophysics remains a puzzle.
Significance
A challenge to understanding ancient sulfur-cycle processes on early Earth is the persistent observation that postdepositional processes have affected all Archean-age rocks, impacting geochemical signals, and the quality of paleoenvironmental interpretations. To solve this problem we developed a combination of texture-specific microsca...
A rover-borne magnetometer can characterize ancient martian lightning strikes, constraining paleoclimate and informing biomarker sample selection.
Recent discussions in the literature have questioned the ability of electromagnetic exposure to inhibit ice crystal formation in supercooled water. Here we note that strong electric fields are able to disrupt the surface boundary layer of inert air on the surface of materials, promoting higher rates of heat transport. We also note that most biologi...
Jones and Crowe (1) raise issues already addressed in our article (2) based on an inaccurate grasp of the literature and several logical misconceptions. The authors suggest that inputs we chose in our kinetic calculations are unsuitable because we used values only from the Black Sea. As described, we made an extremely conservative estimate because...
Robert E. Kopp received the 2012 William Gilbert Award at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting, held 3–7 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding and unselfish work in magnetism of Earth materials and of the Earth and planets.
The emergence of oxygen-producing (oxygenic) photosynthesis fundamentally transformed our planet; however, the processes that led to the evolution of biological water splitting have remained largely unknown. To illuminate this history, we examined the behavior of the ancient Mn cycle using newly obtained scientific drill cores through an early Pale...
The supercontinent Rodinia is hypothesized to have been assembled and positioned in tropical latitudes by the early Neoproterozoic Era. Paleomagnetic data from limestones of Svalbard and basaltic dikes of South China have been interpreted to record rapid changes in paleogeography driven by true polar wander that may have rotated the supercontinent...
Over the past 50 y, behavioral experiments have produced a large body of evidence for the existence of a magnetic sense in a wide range of animals. However, the underlying sensory physiology remains poorly understood due to the elusiveness of the magnetosensory structures. Here we present an effective method for isolating and characterizing potenti...
Joseph Kirschvink received the William Gilbert Award at the 2011 AGU
Fall Meeting, held 5-9 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award
recognizes outstanding and unselfish work in magnetism of Earth
materials and of the Earth and planets.
New biostratigraphic data obtained from measured stratigraphic sections of Santonian through Maastrichtian age located along the west coast of North America necessitate changes to the currently accepted chronostratigraphic framework for this region of the North Pacific biotic province. We recognize and/or define 12 molluscan zones over this interva...
During December of 2009 when the US R/V Lawrence M. Gould was iced out
of the Antarctic Peninsula, we collected core and block samples from 17
different flows and dikes at three sampling areas on Weaver Peninsula
and Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, South Shetland Islands,
Antarctica. Two of the three sampling areas on Weaver Peninsula and
Fil...
Based on histological, physiological, and physical evidence, Walker et
al (1997) and Diebel et al (2000) have identified distinctive cells in
the olfactory epithelium of the rainbow trout (Onchorynchus mykiss) that
contain magnetite and are closely associated with neurons that respond
to changes in magnetic field. To put biophysical constraints on...
Many vertebrate and invertebrate animals have a geomagnetic sensory
system, but the biophysics and anatomy of how magnetic stimuli are
transduced to the nervous system is a challenging problem. Previous work
in our laboratories identified single-domain magnetite chains in
olfactory epithelium in cells proximal to the ros V nerve, which, in
rainbow...
The Tapeats Sandstone is a siliciclastic lithosome that overlies Proterozoic basement rocks and underlies trilobite-bearing Cambrian strata in four exposure areas in Arizona and Nevada, U.S.A. The Tapeats contains three stratigraphically distinct, sedimentologically defined suites of lithofacies: i) Facies Suite A is typically a gravelly to boulder...
Manganese oxide (Mn oxide) minerals from bacterial sources produce electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectral signatures that are mostly distinct from those of synthetic simulants and abiogenic mineral Mn oxides. Biogenic Mn oxides exhibit only narrow EPR spectral linewidths (∼500 G), whereas abiogenic Mn oxides produce spectral linewidths that...
Many aspects of the Earth’s early sulfur cycle, from the origin of mass anomalous fractionations to the scale and
degree of biological involvement, remain poorly understood. We have been studying the nature of multiple sulfur isotope
(^(32)S, ^(33)S, and ^(34)S) signals using a novel combination of scanning high-resolution low-temperature supercond...
Oxidative precipitation and authigenic enrichment of the redox sensitive element Mn in sedimentary rocks can serve as a proxy for the release of high levels of O 2 during the Great Oxidization Event (GOE). Here we investigate Mn abundance in sedimentary rocks of the 2.45–2.22 Ga Huronian Supergroup, Canada. We found authigenic Mn enrichments with h...
Various geochemical characteristics of sedimentary iron- and sulfur-bearing minerals motivate early- to late-oxygenation hypotheses from South African and Australian scientific drillcores. Most intervals of these drillcores appear to be remagnetized (in some cases multiple times); and ~2.0 Ga magnetic sulfide crystallization is particularly pervasi...
Detailed magnetostratigraphic resampling of the Central Italian Scaglia Rossa limestones spanning the entirety of magnetic polarity Chron 33r and its boundaries (ca. 85-70 Ma) reveals previously undocumented long-wavelength (~1 Myr) oscillations in inclination as large as 20° that are not attributable to inclination flattening, remagnetization, or...
New shallow scientific drillcore has been recovered through the Frasnian-Famennian extinction boundary in northwest Australia's Canning Basin. Previous work in the McWhae Ridge outcrop belt has identified patterns of turnover in trilobites and other fauna, change from sponge- and coral-dominated reefs to post-extinction microbial-dominated reefs, a...
Although ferrimagnetic material appears suitable as a basis of magnetic field perception in animals, it is not known by which mechanism magnetic particles may transduce the magnetic field into a nerve signal. Provided that magnetic particles have remanence or anisotropic magnetic susceptibility, an external magnetic field will exert a torque and ma...
The first demonstrations of magnetic effects on the behaviour of migratory birds and homing pigeons in laboratory and field experiments, respectively, provided evidence for the longstanding hypothesis that animals such as birds that migrate and home over long distances would benefit from possession of a magnetic sense. Subsequent identification of...
A previously uncollected fauna of ammonites, bivalves, and other molluscs, associated with radiolarian microfossils, has been newly recognized near Lawn Hill on the east coast of central Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. The regional biostratigraphic zonation indicates that the Lawn Hill fauna is correlative with the Nostoceras hornbyense...
Lovelock and Whitfield suggested in 1982 that, as the luminosity of the Sun increases over its life cycle, biologically enhanced silicate weathering is able to reduce the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO(2)) so that the Earth's surface temperature is maintained within an inhabitable range. As this process continues, however, between...
All published early Earth carbon cycle models assume that aerobic respiration is as ancient as oxygenic photosynthesis. However, aerobic respiration shuts down at oxygen concentrations below the Pasteur Point, (.01 of the present atmospheric level, PAL). As geochemical processes are unable to produce even local oxygen concentrations above .001 PAL,...
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is one of the most severe climatic events of the Cenozoic Era. A massive injection of light carbon into the oceans and atmosphere over a few thousand of years triggered drastic perturbation of Earth's climate resulting in abrupt global warming of ~5-9oC [Sluijs et al., 2007] that persisted for ~180,000 ye...
Detailed paleomagnetic study across the Archean-Paleoproterozoic boundary interval preserved in the Ghaap Group, Transvaal Supergroup, of the Kaapvaal craton reveals a complex series of viscous and thermo-chemical magnetic overprints. Despite this complex history, a potential primary single-polarity remanence direction was revealed at high-temperat...
Several causes have been proposed for Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) boundary extinctions, including global ocean anoxia/euxinia, an impact event, and/or eruption of the massive Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), but poor intercontinental correlation makes testing these difficult. Sections at Kennecott Point, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Colum...
The reef systems in the Canning Basin, Western Australia perhaps are the best exposed and least deformed examples of ancient reef systems known in the world. The recently commenced multi-disciplinary research project in the Devonian reef complex of the Canning Basin is a broad investigation of the depositional history of a carbonate platform using...
We have been studying the chemical taphonomy of multiple sulfur isotope ratios in a suite of drill core samples through the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa, collected during the Agouron Drilling Project; these samples capture distal slope and basinal environments adjacent to a major Late Archean-age (~2.6-2.52 Ga) carbonate platform. Bulk rock a...