We investigate the broad lines of magnetic mineral formation for non-metamorphic claystones. More particularly, we focus on the formation of magnetite from c . 20 day-experiments aiming to reproduce burial conditions. It is shown that the sole action of temperature from 50 °C to 250 °C leads to the formation of magnetite. The neoformed magnetites carry a chemical remanent magnetization which equates at least the natural remanent magnetization. We propose a schematic of burial with three magnetic windows where a chemical remanent magnetization superimposed the natural remanent magnetization. These are the greigite window (subsurface), the magnetite window (depth > 2 km) and the pyrrhotite window (depth > 6 km). The formation of magnetic minerals has profound consequences for the magnetostratigraphy record. We propose a conceptual model that shows that the continuous production of magnetite during burial may result in magnetozones that have no relation to the age of the sediment.

Gas hydrate occurrence is one of the possible mechanisms invoked for iron sulfide formation. A high-resolution rock magnetic study was conducted in IODP Expedition 316 Hole C0008C located in the Megasplay Fault Zone of the Nankai Trough, offshore Japan. In this particular zone, no bottom simulating reflectors (BSR), indicating the base of the gas hydrate stability field, have been identified. Two hundred and eighteen Pleistocene samples were collected from 70 to 110 m CSF in order to document the changes in the concentration, grain size, and rock magnetic parameters of magnetic minerals, through the gas hydrate-bearing horizons. Two different populations of magnetic grains are recognized in the pseudosingle domain range. Three types of magnetic mineral assemblages are identified: iron oxides (magnetite), ferrimagnetic iron sulfides (greigite and pyrrhotite), and their mixture. Greigite and pyrrhotite are authigenic and constitute six layers, called IS1–IS6. IS1, IS3, IS4, and IS6 are associated with pore water anomalies, suggesting the occurrence of gas hydrates and anoxic conditions. IS2 and IS5 are probable gas hydrates horizons, although there is no independent data to confirm it. The remaining intervals are mainly composed of detrital iron oxides and paramagnetic iron sulfides. Two scenarios based on different diagenetic stages are proposed to explain the variations in the magnetic properties and mineralogy over the studied interval. The results suggest that rock magnetism appears useful to better constrain the gas hydrate distribution in Hole C0008C, and counterbalances the low resolution of pore water analyses and the absence of a BSR.

The Tajik basin and southwestern Tian Shan constitute the northwestern tip of the India‐Asia collision zone. Basin inversion formed the thin‐skinned Tajik fold‐thrust belt, outlined by westward convex fold trains, underlain by a décollement in Jurassic evaporites. The belt's leading edge—the Uzbek Gissar—and its transpressional northern lateral margin—the Tajik Gissar—constitute the thick‐skinned foreland buttresses. Apatite fission‐track data indicate ~40‐ to 15‐Ma reheating by sediment burial in the Tian Shan. In the Gissar and the Tajik fold‐thrust belt, apatite fission‐track and (U,Th)/He ages date the major phase of shortening/erosion between ~12 and 1 Ma, with exhumation to 2‐ to 3‐km crustal depths within a few Myr after onset of shortening. Shortening spread immediately across the fold‐thrust belt, typical for belts floored by a detachment in ductile rocks, and into the foreland buttresses. Reactivation concentrated in the internal (eastern) fold‐thrust belt with the thickest evaporates. The youngest ages (~6.6–1.6 Ma) occur along the Vakhsh thrust, the active erosional front of the fold‐thrust belt in the northeastern Tajik basin, where it narrows between the converging Tian Shan and Pamir. Our study links major events in the Pamir hinterland with the Tajik basin and Tian Shan foreland. In the late Eocene–early Miocene, the advancing Pamir‐plateau crust loaded the foreland, inducing subsidence, reheating, and early shortening. Basin inversion and major shortening/transpression in the foreland buttresses from ~12 Ma onward were synchronous with the subcrustal indentation of Indian lithosphere into the Tajik‐Tarim basin lithosphere and the onset of its rollback beneath the Pamir.