chickengold92
Posts : 90 Join date : 2010-11-22
| Subject: Magnetite is the most magnetic Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:23 pm | |
| Magnetite is the most magnetic of all the naturally occurring minerals on Earth.[4] Naturally magnetized pieces of magnetite, called lodestone, will attract small pieces of iron, and this was how ancient people first noticed the property of magnetism. Lodestones were used as an early form of magnetic compass. Magnetite typically carries the dominant magnetic signature in rocks, and so it has been a critical tool in paleomagnetism, a science important in discovering and understanding plate tectonics and as historic data for magnetohydrodynamics and other scientific fields. The relationships between magnetite and other iron-rich oxide minerals such as ilmenite, hematite, and ulvospinel have been much studied, as the complicated reactions between these minerals and oxygen influence how and when magnetite preserves records of the Earth's magnetic field. South Texas podiatristBrisbane real estate agent | |
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