The Direction of the Geomagnetic Field in Remote Epochs in Great Britain

Abstract

The remanent magnetizations of samples of sediments and lavas from Great Britain, representative of widely different geological epochs, have been studied. Evidence for the stability of these magnetizations from times soon after the formation of the rocks has been found. These results seem most easily interpreted in terms of a dipole field, the polarity of which frequently reverses. In Pre-Tertiary times the axis of this dipole field diverges considerably from the present geographical axis and this is tentatively interpreted as a slow change in the axis of rotation of the earth with respect to its surface.