Magsat magnetic anomaly contrast across Labrador Sea passive margins

Many passive margins not complicated by nearby anomalous crustal structure have satellite elevation crustal magnetic anomaly contrasts across them that are recognizable in reduced-to-pole versions of the Magsat and POGO data. In the Labrador Sea region this contrast is particularly well developed with strong positive anomalies overlying the continental crust of Greenland and eastern Canada and prominent negative anomalies situated over the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay. In this work, forward modeling of the large-scale crustal bodies in this region (continental, oceanic, passive margin, several anomalous structures) was used to show that the Magsat anomaly contrast is due simply to the change in crustal susceptibility and thickness at the continental/oceanic crustal transition. Because the thickness varies more than the average susceptibility from continental to oceanic crust, the strong anomaly contrast is essentially an edge effect due mostly to the change in crustal structure.