Alternating magnetic stripes of the Pacific seafloor (Mason and Raff)
Bandas magnéticas alternas del fondo del Pacífico (Mason y Raff)
- Date
- 1955-1961 · confidence high
- Place
- La Jolla, California, United States
- Credited to
- Ronald Mason and Arthur Raff
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Towing a magnetometer behind a Scripps ship off California, Mason and Raff found alternating stripes of strong and weak magnetism on the Pacific seafloor, offset by large faults. Nobody could explain them until Vine and Matthews linked them to magnetic field reversals and seafloor spreading.
The first survey was done in 1955-1958; Raff and Mason published in 1961 in the GSA Bulletin. The coordinates are those of the institute, not the sea.
What it led to
- the Vine and Matthews interpretation (1963)
- dating of the ocean floor from its magnetic anomalies