The Earth possesses a magnetic field caused primarily by sources in the core. The form of the field is roughly the same as would be caused by a dipole or bar magnet located near the Earth's center and aligned sub parallel to the geographic axis. Many rocks and minerals are weakly magnetic or are magnetized by induction in the Earth's field, and cause spatial perturbations or "anomalies" in the Earth's main field. Man-made objects containing iron or steel are often highly magnetized and locally can cause large anomalies up to several thousands of nT. Magnetic methods are generally used to map the location and size of ferrous objects.
