Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-of-the-earth-as-a-planet-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-1/1/e/solution
Past exam of the physics of the Earth as a Planet course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 1 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Assume an Earth-like reversing planetary magnetic field and magnetizable crust that acquires thermoremanent magnetization on cooling. Alternating polarity intervals then produce marine magnetic stripes parallel to each spreading ridge, with matching age/polarity sequences on its two sides. AB has half-spreading rate 10 mm/year, whereas AC has half-spreading rate 24 mm/year. Thus the same polarity interval produces widths and mm when time is in years: the AC stripes are 2.4 times wider. Age increases away from each ridge. The transform produces no new crust; bands end or are displaced at it, rather than forming a third symmetric stripe sequence centred on BC. This is the remanent-magnetization/spreading mechanism developed from marine magnetic observations.[ref]
Magnetic Anomalies Over Oceanic Ridges by F. J. Vine and D. H. Matthews. pp. 947–949, alternating remanent magnetization and the spreading interpretation
A more precise local sketch can be made in the northern junction frame. Let be distances in kilometres along the fixed tangent axes and the crustal age in Myr; numerically, mm/year equals km/Myr. Relative to the moving junction, the velocities are , and . In A the steady age field is , since backwards advection first reaches either the AC or AB ridge. Equal-age bands therefore join as right-angle corners within A, with the corners migrating along the ray . In the B wedge, and the stripes meet the transform. On the C flank directly supplied from AC, ; other parts of C carry older crust whose inherited pattern requires earlier boundary history.
Original conditional remanent-polarity sketch in the north-junction frame; reversal intervals are illustrative and unsupplied older crust is left unassigned
. Details. The sketch displays magnetization polarity, not a computed total-field anomaly amplitude. Actual anomalies depend on the planetary field direction, source depth, magnetization strength and observation geometry. The paper supplies no field history, so a numerical reversal chronology or an absolute positive/negative anomaly sequence cannot be inferred. Without field reversals, ridge accretion alone does not imply alternating polarity stripes.
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