Serpentinized Peridotite as Source of Aeromagnetic Anomalies

The source of long-wavelength aeromagnetic anomalies appears to originate from the eartlrs deep crust. Constrained by previous studies on geochemical, petrologic analysis, the eclogite and serpentinized peridotite samples from drill hole ZK703 at Donghai in the western Sulu ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane, East China, were unambiguously exhumed from the lower crust and the upper mantle, providing significant information about the magnetic properties of rocks at a deeper part of the crust. Results show that the serpentinization process favors the neoformation of nearly stoichiometric magnetite, resulting in the enhancement of its magnetization up to 8.6 A/m, which is sufficient enough to contribute to some magnetic anomalies. In contrast, eclogite samples have only weaker magnetization (generally less than 0.05 A/m) compared to serpentinized peridotite. Nevertheless, experiments under the lower crustal conditions are necessary to further support these conclusions.