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palaeomagnetism

British  
/ ˌpælɪəʊˈmæɡnɪˌtɪzəm /

noun

  1. the study of the fossil magnetism in rocks, used to determine the past configurations of the continents and to investigate the past shape and magnitude of the earth's magnetic field

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • palaeomagnetic adjective

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The deposits were dated using a method called palaeomagnetism, which uses well-documented flips in Earth’s magnetic field to date rock established between these events.

From Nature • Jul. 10, 2018

Macedonio Melloni, the observatory's first director, did pioneering work on the magnetic properties of lava that was crucial to later studies of palaeomagnetism — the history of Earth's magnetic field as recorded in rocks.

From Nature • Mar. 20, 2013

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.