USGS/PALEOMAGNETIC GEOLOGY
Menlo Park, California

This Rubens coil was constructed in the early 1960’s. The geomagnetic field within the coil is monitored with a 3-axis fluxgate magnetometer. An automatic tracking system adjusts the current flowing through the coil in order to maintain a "null" field at the center of the array. The coil originally housed a small oven which was used for thermal demagnetization experiments on rock samples. A completely new oven system was designed and constructed in the late 1960’s in preparation for studies on returned lunar samples. This new system contains 6 separate ovens that can be controlled independently. Each oven has a capacity for 5 standard paleomagnetic cores and temperatures are monitored by four individually recording thermocouples per oven. Heatings can be performed in air, vacuum, or an inert gas. Different constant field strengths can be applied within each pair of ovens. This instrument is used mainly for the determination of geomagnetic paleointensities.

URL for the Western Region Geochronology HomePage is: <http://wrgis.wr/docs/chron/whatis.html>
URL for this page is: <http://wrgis.wr/docs/chron/paleomag/rubens.html>
If you have questions or comments please contact: <bito@mojave.wr.usgs.gov>