Magnetic Survey Lab

Rob Sternberg, Franklin & Marshall College

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Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
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This page first made public: Jun 1, 2012

Summary

To do a "magnetic survey" in the lab to understand the nature of magnetic anomalies, and to plot the data using profiles and contour maps.

Magnetism/Paleomag | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate course for geosciences and physics majors on geophysics.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

How the activity is situated in the course

Stand-alone exercise as part of the section of the course on geomagnetism.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Magnetic surveys
Magnetic anomalies
Contour maps

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Visualization of 3-dimensional anomalies
Subsurface imaging using surficial measurements

Other skills goals for this activity

operating analytical equipment
using the WWW
working in groups
using Surfer

Description and Teaching Materials

Student handout for magnet in a box exercise (Microsoft Word 28kB Apr30 12)

Needed - laboratory fluxgate magnetometer that can read in microteslas

Needed - Surfer or other contouring software, or contouring can be done by hand