The distribution of surface magnetization in the English River and Kenora subprovinces of the Archean shield in Manitoba and Ontario

Surface magnetizations (induced and remanent) have been measured from almost 600 oriented cores collected over an area of 50 000 km2 covering portions of the Kenora, English River, and Red Lake subprovinces of the western Archean shield, between latitudes 49 and 51 °and longitudes 93 and 96°. These surface magnetizations reflect major geological provinces in the area, and throw light on the vertical distribution of magnetization and on the associated long wavelength magnetic anomalies. A major belt of high surface magnetization lies over the granodiorite–granite suite in the southern part of the English River subprovince and a major belt of low magnetization over the metasedimentary gneiss belt in the northern part of the subprovince. Remanent magnetization is prevalent, but is very unstable, apparently due to viscous remanence, and subparallel to the present-day geomagnetic field. This fact is of importance because rocks of this type, if deeply buried and at ambient temperatures above surface values, may lead to rather large intensities of magnetization. The magnetization is almost entirely due to magnetite, and titanomagnetite is only rarely encountered. The prevalent opaque minerals are magnetite, ilmenite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, and hematite.