Earth Sciences 1022A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 4.2: Magnetic Declination, Magnetite, Field Experiment

• School: Western University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: Earth Sciences 1022A/B
• Professor: Charles Murison

Document Summary

This lab will serve to demonstrate the use of a magnetometer, a device used to measure minute variations in the earth"s magnetic field. These variations can then be used to locate a body buried within the earth if that body exhibits a magnetic variation from the surrounding material: theory and applications. The earth has a global magnetic field produced by internal processes within the earth itself. On the surface of the earth, this field is easy to detect (it causes a compass needle to point towards the north magnetic pole). Being able to take precise measurements of the strength and direction of the magnetic field using a magnetometer is useful for a number of applications. Additionally, magnetic are useful in environmental, engineering and forensic applications where there is a need to locate a buried object that may be magnetic. The magnetic field is measured in terms of flux density, the details of which would be covered in a physics course.