• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.189-194
• /
• 2011

Martian satellite missions indicate that Martian equatorial plains are covered by ferric iron oxide. As a non-destructive technique, low-temperature treatment of remanent magnetization is effective in identifying magnetic minerals in rocks. In the present study, four sets of ferric iron oxides were prepared by aqueous alteration of ferrihydrite at warm conditions and four others by dehydration of goethite. As the amount of aluminous trivalent cations increases, crystallographic lattice parameters and N$\acute{e}$el temperatures decrease. Such declines originate from lattice distortion as the smaller aluminous trivalent cations substitue the larger terric irons. Whilst high remanence memory was observed for aqueously produced ferric iron oxide, low remanence memory was observed for dehydrated ferric iron oxide. In the future. magnetic remanence memory would be powerful in diagnosing the origin of ferric iron oxide.