Constraints of magnetic field which magnetized the Farmington meteorite parant body

Abstract

Analysis indicates the following: (1) the parent body of the Farmington meteorite experienced sufficient heating (probably from shock accompanying a major collision occurring 520 million years ago) to erase the record of any magnetization acquired prior to that event; therefore, (2)the observed magnetization in the Farmington meteorite must have been acquired after the collision; and (3)shockproduced magnetization is unlikely, because of the finite cooling time indicated by the burial depth of approximately several meters. The possibility of shock or irradiation-produced magnetizations is proposed as an experimental study, even though neither appears likely to have produced the magnetic field which produced the magnetization in the parent body of the Farmington meteorite