Jökull - 01.12.1984, Page 79

„Paleomagnetic Research on Icelandic Rocks 1951—81“
Additional notes and references
LEÓ KRISTJÁNSSON
Science Institute, University of Iceland
Dunhaga 3, Reykjavík, Iceland.
- De nouveaux échantillons seront nécessaires avant
toute généralisation. (Chevallier 1930b). -
A bibliographical review paper on paleo- and
rock magnetic research in Iceland appeared in a
previous volume of Jökull (Kristjánsson 1982).
Since that paper was written, however, some
further references on this topic have come to my
attention.
Historically the most interesting point to come
to light concerns the oldest published work on
paleomagnetic laboratory studies of Icelandic
rocks. In my previous paper I had assumed that
these were P. L. Mercanton’s studies on samples
collected during the 1929 cruise of Pourquoi-
Pas?, published in 1931—32.
Mercanton, undoubtedly one of the foremost
pioneers of paleomagnetic research, was a
meteorologist of Swiss nationality, who also
worked on glaciology and other subjects. He was
associated with expeditions to the Arctic already
by 1910, and during one of these he and two
British colleagues were the first people on record
to climb Mt. Beerenberg of Jan Mayen. This feat
took place on 11 Aug 1921, and is reported in
Comptes Rendus 174 (1922) p. 1479—81. Mer-
canton’s accomplishments are referred to in a
1947 booklet written by a Reykjavik merchant
lady, Thora Fridriksson, in memory of Comman-
dant J.-B. Charcot and his expeditions to Ice-
land. Mercanton describes some of his magnetic
field measurements and paleomagnetic sampling
localities in Iceland in Ann. Hydrogr. vol. 11
(3eser.) 1931-32, p. 135-139.
Another scientist also pioneering in paleo-
magnetism in the first half of the century was the
French physicist R. Chevallier. He is best known
for his studies on Etna lava flows around 1925
and for his later work on the magnetic properties
of various iron minerals.
In 1930, Chevallier read a paper to the
Academie des Sciences and to the Nancy chapter
of the Societé Francaise de Physique (Chevallier
1930a), describing the remanence of four samples
from the presumably 1000 A. D. lava Thur-
árhraun, east of Reykjavik. These were collected
during the 1925 Pourquoi-Pas? cruise; cf. Cheval-
lier’s description in Ann. Hydrogr. vol. 7, 1926,
p. 216-221. In a subsequent publication (Cheval-
lier 1930b) he observes that the mean N. R. M.
inclination of these samples is rather low (+71°),
but states that this may be related to the high
intensity of remanence of the samples as com-
Fig. 1. „Pourquoi pas?“
JÖKULL 34. ÁR 77