Brown examines magnetic field reversals in Distinguished Faculty Lecture

Professor Laurie Brown of the Department of Geosciences will be presenting a Distinguished Faculty Lecture titled "Magnetic Field Reversals: The Ups and Downs of Earth's Dipole, as seen from South America" on Monday, March 11 at 4 p.m. in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center.

While studying an active volcano in the Chilean Andes, Brown discovered lava flows that gave evidence of the most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles. Paleomagnetism, the study of how Earth’s magnetic field is recorded in rocks, suggests that when the field reverses itself, it reduces to a low intensity. Since this field shields us from harmful solar rays, lessening it has the potential to have profound environmental effects. Brown will relate how her findings will help predict with more accuracy reversal processes and how future reversals may affect human activity.

After the lecture, Brown will be presented with the Chancellor's Medal. 

The lecture is free and open to the public.