Spectral Analysis of the Elatina Varve Series
Abstract
The Elatina formation in South Australia, which provides a rich fossil record of presumptive solar activity in the late Precambrian, is of great potential significance for the physics of the sun because it contains laminae grouped in cycles of about 12, an appearance suggestive of the solar cycle. The actual spectrum of the lamina-thickness series is rather complex, 20 or more spectral lines having been recognized by Fourier analysis. It is shown how these numerous lines arise as combination frequencies, from a much simpler intrinsic spectrum, by rectification. Optical studies of the sun have shown that there is a magnetic polarity reversal on the sun every 11 years approximately, but terrestrial consequences of solar activity, for example in the ozonosphere or ionosphere, do not respond to solar magnetism; thus the negative-going semicycles of the full magnetic cycle are in effect rectified. Application of this knowledge to the Elatina formation shows that directification simplifies the spectrum of the lamina-thickness series in exactly the way that one would expect if the solar cycle were at work here also. (fr)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA199380
Entities
People
- R. N. Bracewell
Organizations
- Stanford University