Impact of micro-organisms activity on the natural remanent magnetization of the young oceanic crust

Microbes have been widely reported in the deep subseafloor environment. Still it is difficult to detect a global chemical signature of bacterial activity in the oceanic crust. We carried out experiments up to 355 days exposing very young oceanic basalts to anaerobe sulfate reducing organisms in an in-vitro marine environment. The Natural Remanent Magnetization of samples was monitored during the whole duration of experiments and within this time frame the most magnetized sub-samples lost up to 30% of their original signal. Scanning electron microscope observations show cycling of iron from the titanomagnetites to iron sulfide phases. Our results suggest that microbes can have a major and fast impact on the magnetization of young oceanic basalts and could contribute to a global signal as the central anomaly magnetic high seen along ridges axis.