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Department of Geological Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
This introduction outlines the history of the palaeomagnetic study of the diagenesis of sediments, followed by a very general description of the main concepts of diagenetic process involved as loose sediments become increasing lithified into true rocks. This is followed by a discussion of how this collection of articles originated and the basis for the way they are organized. A glossary of most relevant palaeomagnetic and diagenetic terms, with some minerals, is given at the end of the book (Tarling, this volume).
As sediments are almost always more weakly magnetized than igneous rocks, the earliest palaeomagnetic studies were mostly made on igneous rocks (Delesse 1849; Folgerhaiter 1894) and fired clays (Melloni 1853; Gheradi 1862), although the discovery of thermal remanence was made by Boyle (1691) using sedimentary iron ores. Studies of the magnetization of Quaternary varved sediments and marine samples were reported by McNish & Johnson (1938), followed shortly by Ising (1943) working on varved sediments in Sweden. Granar (1958) expanded on the Swedish work and developed the early principles of how magnetic grains, as they are deposited, become aligned by the ambient geomagnetic field and that this alignment can be preserved after deposition. Studies of unconsolidated sediments in the United States was expanded by Johnson et al. (1948) and further studies of the Swedish varves by Griffiths (1953) and Griffiths et al. (1960). Pioneering magnetic studies of laboratory deposited materials were made by King (1955), Griffiths et al. (1957), Rees (1961), Griffiths et al. (1962) and Hamilton (1963) in
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