Statistical analysis of the oceanic magnetic anomaly data

Abstract

The study of the statistical properties of ocean magnetic anomalies could be very important to get obtain new understanding about on plate tectonics, especially about the past properties of the lithospheric oceanic plates. Here we analyse ocean magnetic anomaly data at global scale in both time and space and prove the Laplace statistical distribution of marine magnetic anomalies. We provide a physical explanation of this statistical distribution of marine magnetic anomalies using a test with synthetic data, and investigate their behaviour during the Cretaceous Normal Superchron. A further comparison of our results with those provided by two global models of the lithospheric magnetic field, heavily based on satellite data, provides new evidence of an intrinsic limit of these global models, and confirms the need to include more near-surface magnetic data to better constrain these magnetic models, in particular over oceanic regions.