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Archaeomagnetic secular variation record of Mount Vesuvius

Nature volume 291, pages 216–218 (1981)Cite this article

Abstract

The lavas produced by historically recorded eruptions of Mt Vesuvius, and the Herculaneum mudflow resulting from the AD 79 eruption have been investigated archaeomagnetically. The mudflow carries a magnetically hard remanence, the direction of which is significantly different from that of the present-day field, suggesting that the remanence is primary. The secular variation curve for Vesuvius agrees well with the Rome record and with other curves from Italy and London. A model for westward drift which accounts for certain features of secular variation in Europe over the past 200 yr requires a mean deceleration rate of 0.004 deg yr−2. This is less than the current rate, suggesting that the deceleration rate was smaller 200 yr ago than it is today.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth and Planetary Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2J1

    G. S. Hoye

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  1. G. S. Hoye
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Hoye, G. Archaeomagnetic secular variation record of Mount Vesuvius. Nature 291, 216–218 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/291216a0

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