Rock-magnetic properties of TRM carrying baked and molten rocks straddling burnt coal seams

Abstract

The subsurface spontaneous combustion of coal seams in Xinjiang (NW China) during Pleistocene to recent times produced large areas of thermally altered sedimentary rocks with large magnetic moments. The natural remanent magnetization (NRM) and thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) intensities and low-field susceptibilities of such combustion-metamorphic rocks range from 0.1 to 10 A/m and 100 × 10^(-4) to 1000 × 10^(-4) SI, respectively, which is two to three orders of magnitude higher than values typical of their sedimentary protoliths. The dominant magnetic carriers in the burnt rocks appear to include relatively pure forms of magnetite, maghemite and hematite as well as more complex spinel phases. These magnetic phases mainly occur as fine pseudo-single-domain (PSD) particles. Conspicuous is the presence of pure metallic iron (aFe) in some samples. This highly magnetic phase is inferred to appear as more or less elongated super paramagnetic and single-domain (SD) inclusions in host silicate phases, which prevent them from oxidizing. The SD aFe particles can carry a highly stable remanence, having remanent coercivities ranging 70-140mT. The ARM and IRM stability of all burnt rock samples to alternating fields is shown to be relatively high; median destructive fields, B(1/2)A and B(1/2)I, respectively, range of 25-46 and ~20-30mT for dominant spinel-bearing samples, 34-36 and 47-53mT for maghemite-hematite-bearing samples, and 48-89 and 64-84mT for metallic iron-bearing samples. Consequently, burnt rocks are high-quality geomagnetic field recorders. Their very nature makes them useful for paleointensity determinations, although age determination is a limiting factor. Furthermore, remanence intensities and susceptibilities of these magnetically enhanced rocks are sufficient to produce observable magnetic anomalies. This property illustrates the potential to delineate the areal extent and depth of (extinct) coal fires with magnetic exploration. Such information is necessary to refine estimates of hazardous CO2 emission and furthers our understanding of natural coal fires.