[M-GI31] Introduction to forensic geoscience

[MGI31-P04] High temperature thermomagnetic experiments – a forensic geological approach

*Balazs Bradak¹, Maria Felicidad Bógalo Román², Christopher A Gomez¹ (1.Faculty of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University, 2.Departamento de Física, Universidad de Burgos)

Keywords:forensic geology, environmental magnetism, thermomagnetic experiments

During the last decades, there have been only a few publications on environmental magnetic measurements applied to forensic (geological) investigations, showing that the potentials of the method have not been fully explored yet. The present exploratory study aims to start bridging this gap by introducing of one of the commonly used rock magnetic methods: thermomagnetic experiments.
The goal of this research is the demonstration of the potential of thermomagnetic experiments in forensic investigations, magnetic parameters (magnetization and magnetic susceptibility) of natural (Pleistocene loess) and urban dust samples, which were measured using a methodology relying on the heating the samples up to 700 °C - 800 °C, using the thermal dependence of magnetic susceptibility and thermomagnetic experiments.
The results provide that heating and cooling curves for a variety of natural and anthropogenic samples, are representing the magnetic characteristic of the minerals in the samples, but there are some uncertainties during the interpretation of the inflection points, peaks and steps of the curves. Despite those interpretation difficulties, thermomagnetic experiments, combined with other (rock magnetic) methods, may be a useful tool in future forensic geological studies.