The Last 5 Myr Paleomagnetic Field Observed at Hawaii Island
It is noted from this figure that the distribution of VGP is almost round shape while that of field direction is oval shape along the up-down direction. The datasets were analyzed by Bingham statistics and the ratio of radii of the 95\(\%\) confidence regions were compared. \(\alpha_{32}/\alpha_{31}\) was 1.18 for VGP while 1.49 for field, indicating more elongated distribution of field. Direction of elongation (\({\bf t}_2\) direction) of field was almost meridian. The results suggest that the paleomagnetic field was mostly dipolar and the observed elongated distribution of field was simply result of non-linear latitude dependence of the fluctuating dipole field.