We have developed a high-resolution scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscope for imaging the magnetic field of geological samples at room temperature. In this paper, we provide details about the scanning SQUID microscope system, including the magnetically shielded box (MSB), the XYZ stage, data acquisition by the system, and initial evaluation of the system. The background noise in a two-layered PC permalloy MSB is approximately 40-50 pT. The long-term drift of the system is approximately ≥1 nT, which can be reduced by drift correction for each measurement line. The stroke of the XYZ stage is 100 mm × 100 mm with an accuracy of ~10 µm, which was confirmed by laser interferometry. A SQUID chip has a pick-up area of 200 μm × 200 μm with an inner hole of 30 μm × 30 μm. The sensitivity is 722.6 nT/V. The flux-locked loop has four gains, i.e., ×1, ×10, ×100, and ×500. An analog-to-digital converter allows analog voltage input in the range of about ±7.5 V in 0.6-mV steps. The maximum dynamic range is approximately ±5400 nT, and the minimum digitizable magnetic field is ~0.9 pT. The sensor-to-sample distance is measured with a precision line current, which gives the minimum of ~200 µm. Considering the size of pick-up coil, sensor-to-sample distance, and the accuracy of XYZ stage, spacial resolution of the system is ~200 µm. We developed the software used to measure the sensor-to-sample distance with line scan data, and the software to acquire data and control the XYZ stage for scanning. We also demonstrate the registration of the magnetic image relative to the optical image by using a pair of point sources placed on the corners of a sample holder outside of a thin section placed in the middle of the sample holder. Considering the minimum noise estimate of the current system, the theoretical detection limit of a single magnetic dipole is ~1 × 10 −14 Am 2 . The new instrument is a powerful tool that could be used in various applications in paleomagnetism such as ultrafine-scale magnetostratigraphy and single-crystal paleomagnetism.

A core 197.2m long was taken from the central region of Lake Biwa. About 10000 serial specimens were prepared from the axis of the core to study palaeomagnetism. They have remanent magnetization stable enough to allow us to decipher the geomagnetic field of the past. The palaeomagnetic results are shown in detail down to 30m from the top of the core. The age of this depth is estimated at about 60000yr B. P. Smoothed curves of magnetic inclination and intensity as functions of depth are obtained by a seven-point moving average, reflecting the variation of the past geomagnetic field.

In 1972, a reconstruction experiment of a kiln had been done to reproduce an excavated kiln of the seventh century in Japan. Baked clay samples were taken from the floor surface and −20 cm level, and they have been stored after determinations of the paleomagnetic directions by partial alternating field demagnetizations. We recently applied the Tsunakawa-Shaw method to the samples to assess how reliable archeointensity results are obtained from the samples. A suite of the rock magnetic experiments and the scanning electron microscope observations elucidate that dominant magnetic carriers of the floor surface samples are Ti-poor titanomagnetite grains in approximately 10 nm size with single-domain and/or super-paramagnetic states, whereas contributions of multi-domain grains seem to be relatively large for the −20-cm level samples. From the floor surface samples, six out of the eight successful results were obtained and they give an average of 47.3 μT with a standard deviation of 2.2 μT. This is fairly consistent with the in situ geomagnetic field of 46.4 μT at the time of the reconstruction. They are obtained with a built-in anisotropy correction using anhysteretic remanent magnetization and without any cooling rate corrections. In contrast, only one out of four was successful from the −20-cm level samples. It yields an archeointensity of 31.6 μT, which is inconsistent with the in situ geomagnetic field. Considering from the in situ temperature record during the firing of the kiln and the unblocking temperature spectra of the samples, the floor surface samples acquired full thermoremanent magnetizations (TRMs) as their natural remanent magnetizations whereas the −20-cm level samples only acquired partial TRMs, and these differences probably cause the difference in the archeointensity results between the two sample groups. For archeointensity researches, baked clay samples from a kiln floor are considered to be ideal materials.

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