Welcome to RPM (Rock- Paleo- Magnetism)

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Research Overview

I am a Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Rock Magnetism, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota. My primary research interests lie in Rock- and Paleomagnetism, with a particular interest on paleomagnetic data fidelity. My dominant research line is in Magnetic Anisotropy, Detrital Remanent Magnetization (DRM) and its associated biases (e.g., Inclination Shallowing): I use magnetic fabrics to correct paleomagnetic directions and the corresponding Paleogeographic Reconstructions, with a particular interest in the early assemblage of Pangea and other factors which may affect paleomagnetic directions and their reliability. These interests extend to cover the acquisition mechanisms of DRM and the effect of anisotropy-based corrections of inclination shallowing and of Relative Paleointensity (RPI) data, and to include the evaluation of anisotropic distributions of  paleomagnetic data (Shape Analysis) from remagnetized rocks in general. Other recent research topics include the Magnetic Enhancement of Soils, Environmental Rock-Magnetic proxies and the magnetic characterization of Volcanic Eruptive Styles.

Research highlights:

• First successful anisotropy measurement technique for hematite-bearing rocks (Bilardello & Kodama 2009, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04231.x) and isolation of different hematite anisotropy contributions (Bilardello 2015, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggv171);

• First to compile and use shallowing-factor distributions to correct for sedimentary rock inclination shallowing (Bilardello & Kodama 2008) and to point out their drawbacks (https://hdl.handle.net/11299/227512; Bilardello & Kodama 2009, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/227514);

• First to evaluate the elliptical uncertainty around inclination-corrected paleomagnetic directions based on compilations of shallowing factors (Bilardello et al. 2011, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.05138.x);

• First to evaluate the effects of inclination shallowing corrections on the paleogeography of Pangea (Bilardello & Kodama 2010b, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04537.x, Bilardello & Kodama 2010c, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X10005637);

• First to evaluate the effects of inclination shallowing corrections on Relative Paleointensity estimates (Molinek & Bilardello 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GC007196);

• First to propose an intersection of great-circles technique, fitted to VGPs, to determine common (re)magnetization events (Bilardello et al. 2018, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2018.00182);

• First to propose an MPMS HIRM-based goethite test to separate different mineral contributions to the bulk magnetization between room and low-temperature (Bilardello 2019, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f425KX5fsiNeswUnGQbpYov1hTfQA4ib/view).

I contribute to the routine operations of the IRM. I am the editor of The IRM Quarterly newsletter and of the IRM's website. Please contact me for contributions, comments, and suggestions.