reliability of palaeozoic palaeomagnetic poles and apwp of gondwanaland abstract a review of reliable palaeomagnetic data from gondwana palaeozoic rocks supports the apparent polar wander path apwp initially proposed by morel and irving this path or versions of it has recently gained favour with a number of groups the apwp suggests that during the mid palaeozoic gondwanaland was very mobile no palaeomagnetic pole position s has been yet reported that confirms the contentious segment of apwp from the late ordovician to the early silurian the apwp implies that the south pole moved rapidly from north africa in the ordovician to a position off southern south america by the silurian back to central africa by the early carboniferous and across gondwanaland to australia by the late carboniferous the distribution of palaeozoic tillites independently supports such a mobilistic gondwanaland the palaeomagnetic and tectonic evidence are compatible with the lachlan fold belt of australia having been in place since the mid devonian

an early carboniferous paleomagnetic pole for gondwanaland new results from the mount eclipse sandstone in the ngalia basin central australia paleomagnetism of fourteen diamond drill cores from the uppermost devonian lower carboniferous mount eclipse sandstone in the ngalia basin central australia has been studied the samples were oriented using the borehole directions bedding planes identified in the drill cores and regional bedding attitudes three magnetic remanent components have been revealed 1 a drilling induced low to moderate temperature remanence c1 from all the drill cores which is oriented parallel to the drill cores and is most likely a combination of isothermal remanent magnetization and piezoremanent magnetization 2 a moderate to high temperature syndeformational overprint c2 d 226 7 i 82 3 95 6 2 k 68 9 in 65 samples from nine drill cores which was probably acquired during the mid to late carboniferous mount eclipse movement and 3 a moderate to high temperature likely primary remanence c3 d 057 1 i 36 9 95 9 6 k 29 6 from 64 samples in nine drill cores which exhibits a positive fold test c2 and c3 are found only in reddish siltstones and sandstones whereas c1 is best developed in grey reduced sandstones and siltstones a palynological examination gives an early to mid visean early carboniferous age of deposition for samples carrying the interpreted primary component c2 gives a mid to late carboniferous pole at 32 1 s 119 5 e with a95 11 9 which is in agreement with results of a previous study on surface outcrops c3 when combined with results from one drill core in a previous study gives a visean pole at 37 6 s 52 6 e with a95 8 7 this pole suggests a south polar position for central africa during the early carboniferous and therefore indicates the existence of a large ocean between gondwanaland and laurussia at that time the paleo south pole shifted from central africa in the early carboniferous 340 5 ma to east antarctica in the mid to late carboniferous 310 10 ma with a minimal continental drifting rate of 15 20 cm yr

paleolatitudes determined from paleomagnetic data from vertical cores most of the paleomagnetic data available from oceanic plates consist of measurements of inclination but not declination from azimuthally unoriented vertical cores similarly the basic paleomagnetic data to be analyzed from crustal blocks that have rotated by varying amounts about vertical axes are a set of paleoinclinations a new method is proposed for determining the paleocolatitude of a sampling site and the associated confidence limits paleomagnetic inclinations are first converted to paleocolatitudes and averaged to produce a mean colatitude after showing that this mean is biased we derive a paleocolatitude correction to remove the bias using a model for geomagnetic secular variation based on the latitude dependence of secular variation during the past 5 million years after testing the validity of the model by applying it to paleomagnetic data from quaternary lavas for which both inclination and declination are known we apply the method to inclination only paleomagnetic data from suiko seamount the most complete data set from a drilling site the method is then applied to paleomagnetic data from all deep sea drilling project sites for the pacific plate to obtain for each site an unbiased mean paleocolatitude and its confidence limits these paleocolatitudes and confidence limits are then used as input for a least squares analysis to obtain early and late cretaceous poles for the pacific plate and 95 confidence limits for these poles it is shown that the scatter of individual site paleocolatitudes about the best fit pole is consistent with the confidence limits at each site as determined by the new method of analysis

the fold test in palaeomagnetism summary the fold test suggested by mcelhinny is shown to be inappropriate more correctly one should determine whether the mean direction of a group of sites from one limb of a fold may be distinguished statistically from the mean direction of a group of sites from another limb details of the application of this test are given with examples it is shown that the test indicates significance under far less severe folding than does the test suggested by mcelhinny

testing thin skinned inversion of a prerift salt bearing passive margin eastern prebetic zone se iberia abstract detailed geologic mapping combined with well and seismic data from the eastern prebetic zone se iberia reveal extensional and contractional structures that permit characterization of passive margin development and its incorporation into a thin skinned fold and thrust belt the study area is represented by nw directed ene trending folds and thrusts faults locally disrupted by the nw trending matamoros basin and the active jumilla and la rosa diapirs these structures resulted from the thin skinned inversion of the proximal part of the eastern south iberian passive margin containing prerift salt here upper jurassic to santonian thick skinned extension controlled the accumulation of sediment over mobile prerift salt this in turn defined the style of salt tectonics characterized by monoclinal drape folds suprasalt extensional faults and diapirs the structural and sedimentological analysis suggests that during extension salt localizes strain thus decoupling sub and suprasalt deformation thick skinned extension controls suprasalt deformation as well as its location and distribution which changes over time salt also localizes strain during inversion the preexisting salt structures weaker than adjacent areas preferentially absorb the contractional deformation in addition the stepped subsalt geometry that results from thick skinned extension also controls the shortening propagation therefore the degree of strain localization depends on the thickness of the suprasalt cover and on the dip of subsalt faults relative to the thin skinned transport direction

the armorica microplate fact or fiction critical review of the concept and contradictory palaeobiogeographical data abstract the problem of an armorica microplate detached from gondwana and having had during part of the palaeozoic an independent latitudinal evolution is reconsidered in terms of a critical review of the palaeomagnetic data that were the very roots of this concept and through an alternative approach based on palaeoclimatic and palaeobiogeographical data palaeomagnetic data for the silurian and the devonian of the south european regions supposedly constituting the armorica microplate remain rare and ambiguous those from gondwana are more numerous but contradictory enough to give rise to diverging models regarding the latitudinal evolution of this continent consequently the reality of an armorica microplate cannot be considered as established on the contrary lithological indicators of palaeoclimate and palaeobiogeographical data are in total harmony and indicate that in actual fact the southern european regions remained permanently closely connected with gondwana of which they composed the northern margin although repeatedly maintained for more than 20 years the concept of an armorica microplate can thus be considered a fiction this conclusion should lead to the dismissal of geodynamical models proposed for the variscan belt to which this concept was integrated and are contradicted by inescapable palaeobiogeographical constraints

mineralogy maketh mountains granitic landscapes shaped by dissolution abstract in tectonically quiet regions the shape of the landscape is controlled by the erosion resistance of the rocks erosion largely depends on the release of particles from the weathering rock which in turn requires a degree of dissolution of the more soluble grains the rate of dissolution of the common rock forming minerals allows the construction of a numerical rock weatherability scale rws based on the rock s modal mineralogical analysis applied regionally to three granitic landscape regions of the bega valley of southern new south wales the tate batholith and featherbed volcanics of north queensland and granitoids in the beaufort region of victoria the mean elevation of the larger plutons in each region correlates highly r 0 83 0 93 with their rws variation in composition within a pluton also shows there is a clear connection between changes in rws and relief within the pluton from these results it is apparent that the landscape of such granitic terrains is determined very largely by mineral dissolution rates with plagioclase composition and content being a major factor

late devonian magnetostratigraphy from a condensed limestone canning basin western australia detailed thermal demagnetization experiments have been carried out on 31 samples 93 specimens of fore reef limestones from the northern canning basin western australia samples are from a condensed sequence composed of deep water over 100 m stromatolites in the marginal slope facies of the virgin hills formation these stromatolites are made up of shrublike cyanobacterial filaments of frutexites an organism that probably precipitated iron hydroxide from seawater under the oxidizing conditions created by extremely slow sedimentation rates it is likely that iron hydroxides were converted to hematite at or near the sediment water interface when plotted within the microstratigraphic framework for the study area the observed characteristic directions from the sampled interval 14 5 cm thick lie in five discrete normal and reversed polarity zones the measured northeast southwest declinations and shallow inclinations in these polarity zones probably record late devonian magnetostratigraphy on a centimeter scale using sedimentation rates from detailed conodont studies a 56 000 year periodicity is calculated for late devonian polarity reversals this value assumes no breaks in sedimentation and is comparable to minimum lengths of late mesozoic and cenozoic polarity reversals however this study shows that iridium is present over the span of five magnetic reversals evidence therefore favors a biologic rather thanmore extraterrestrial origin for anomalous iridium concentrations less

a demonstration of the importance of bedload transport for fluvial bedrock erosion and knickpoint propagation we provide field evidence for the role of bedload in driving fluvial incision and knickpoint propagation using aerial photographs field surveys and hydrological data we constrain the incision history of a bedrock gorge 1200 m long and up to 20 m deep cut by da an river in western taiwan this reach of the river experienced 10 m of uplift during the 1999 chi chi earthquake for five years following the earthquake bedload was prevented from entering the uplift zone the knickpoint was static and little incision took place bedload transport across the uplift zone resumed in 2004 initiating extremely rapid incision with 620 m of knickpoint propagation and up to 20 m of downcutting by 2008 this change highlights the relative inefficiency of suspended sediment and the dominant role of bedload as a tool for fluvial erosion and knickpoint propagation once bedload tools became available knickpoint propagation was influenced by geological structure lithology and drainage organization in particular a change in dip of the sandstone beds at the site caused a decrease of knickpoint propagation velocity copyright 2012 john wiley sons ltd

paleomagnetism of upper devonian reefal limestones canning basin western australia two conflicting models have been proposed for the middle paleozoic position of gondwana with respect to euramerica a pole from morocco msissi norite that may be of late devonian age suggests that a broad ocean 3 000 km separated the northern continents from gondwana whereas results from mauritania gneiguira supergroup indicate that this ocean had closed by devonian time detailed thermal and alternating field demagnetization experiments have been carried out on red and gray limestones from seven sites 89 samples in an essentially undeformed late devonian reef complex northern canning basin western australia after minor tilt correction the site mean characteristic directions average 42 7 28 9 declination inclination with k 61 6 and 95 7 8 these results position northwestern australia at 15 s latitude in the late devonian a paleolatitude consistent with the presence of a well developed reefal sequence an early age is inferred for these magnetizations on the basis of the occurrence of mixed polarities and the fact that no post devonian directions for australia resemble the observed declinations and inclinations if the smith and hallam reconstruction for gondwana is used the paleomagnetic pole calculated for the late devonian of western australia agrees with the msissi norite result from morocco and suggests that an ocean still separated gondwana from euramerica in the late devonian the pole measured from the gneiguira supergroup in mauritania may be based on remagnetizations of late paleozoic age the directions determined from canning basin limestones are similar in inclination to but differ by 40 in declination from paleomagnetic results from the upper devonian comerong volcanics lachlan fold belt southeastern australia canning basin samples are from the stable craton and comerong volcanics samples are from the tasman fold belt the discrepancy between the two australian results may be best explained by tectonic rotation of the comerong volcanics locality

lower mantle convection and geomagnetism the statistical properties of recent marine magnetic anomaly time scales covering the period from 165 ma to the present are analyzed via the methods presented in the companion paper mcfadden this issue the data no longer support the hypothesis that during the last 86 ma there were two periods separated by a discontinuity at about 45 ma when the properties were stationary instead there is strong evidence that the rate of reversals decreased in an approximately linear manner with time from 165 ma until it reached zero resulting in the cretaceous normal polarity interval at about 86 ma ago the process of reversals began again and the rate of reversals increased linearly with time there is a slight indication that the rate of reversals reached a maximum about 10 ma ago and is again decreasing analysis of the reversal sequences shows there is no good evidence for the concept of differences in the relative stabilities of the two polarity states nor need such a concept be invoked to explain long intervals without reversals such as the cretaceous normal polarity interval quite clearly there has been some form of thermal perturbation at the base of the mantle with a characteristic time of the order of 108 years our interpretations require convection deep within the mantle and suggest that the temperature at the base of the mantle attains a maximum during long magnetic quiet intervals

magnetic overprinting in southeastern australia and the thermal history of its rifted margin the magnetizations of many rock units in southeastern australia have been severely overprinted interpretation of early work was hindered by this and one of the aims of the current research is to ascertain the nature of the overprint mechanism its geological significance and its regional extent results from three igneous bodies from the sydney basin which have been studied previously in a reconnaissance fashion have provided a new insight into the reason for such widespread magnetic overprinting the hornsby breccia hb and milton monzonite mm yield similar magnetic signatures both containing discrete high and low temperature magnetizations with directions of dec 72 inc 83 95 4 and dec 13 inc 76 95 2 respectively for hb and dec 60 inc 78 95 4 and dec 348 inc 79 95 6 respectively for mm the corresponding pole positions are 29 s 166 e a95 7 and 59 s 139 e a95 4 for hb and 22 s 171 e a95 7 and 55 s 158 e a95 11 for mm the paleomagnetic direction and pole from the third body studied the mogo hill basalt mh are dec 241 inc 81 95 5 and 41 s 130 e a95 9 this pole position and the two low temperature overprint pole positions from hb and mm are consistent with ages ranging from 100 m y to approximately 70 m y when compared to the late mesozoic apparent polar wander path we relate the overprinting to uplift erosion and rapid supracrustal cooling of the southeastern margin of australia associated with initial phases of marginal rift development prior to seafloor spreading in the tasman sea the temperatures of rocks now exposed may have reached 200 c or higher before the rapid cooling blocked and stabilized the overprint magnetizations

knickpoint initiation and distribution within fluvial networks 236 waterfalls in the waipaoa river north island new zealand if knickpoints transmit signals of base level fall in river networks then improvements in our understanding of their retreat rate and basin wide distribution helps constrain the transient response following perturbation many studies of knickpoint retreat focus on the response of trunk streams to base level fall here we examine the response of an entire fluvial network as recorded by 236 active knickpoints distributed within the waipaoa river on the north island of new zealand base level fall within the waipaoa catchment initiated 18 000 years ago in response to a climatically triggered and tectonically exacerbated pulse of incision using observations from field work aerial photo analysis and a digital elevation model dem we study the knickpoint positions within the network we find that 70 of the knickpoints are located at drainage areas between 1 10 5 m 2 and 1 10 6 m 2 and more than half are b1 km upstream of a large change in drainage area for the knickpoints b1 km upstream of large tributary junctions we find that the retreat distances were well correlated with the tributaries drainage areas in order to determine how a pulse of incision distributes itself throughout a fluvial network we develop two simple end member models and compare their behavior to the observed knickpoint distribution in the waipaoa in the first model we propose that a knickpoint initiated at the basin outlet retreats upstream and distributes the signal throughout the network at a rate that is a power law function of drainage area in the second model we propose that knickpoints form near a threshold drainage area below which channels cannot incise with the same efficiency as possible in downstream reaches though neither model addresses the along stream variability in substrate or knickpoint form the misfit between the modeled and the observed knickpoints along stream positions are surprisingly low b1 km 1 25 of the total stream length for knickpoints with drainage areas b1 10 6 m 2 large misfits up to 3 5 km are observed for knickpoints with present day drainage areas greater than 1 10 6 m 2 the large single step in channel elevation that characterizes knickpoints presently observed in tributaries of the waipaoa river may not characterize the base level fall signal that propagated through the trunk streams evidence for progressive rather than instantaneous incision in the trunk streams the knickpoints vicinities to tributary junctions and the equivalent success of the two end member models lead us to conclude that the present positions of the 236 observed knickpoints are largely a consequence of thresholds in channel incision at low drainage areas

paleomagnetism of the upper devonian reef complexes canning basin western australia paleomagnetism of the upper devonian reef complexes in the canning basin western australia was reinvestigated with a primary aim of testing its magnetization age samples were collected from back reef and reefal limestones basinal red beds syndepositional allochthonous blocks and sediment infillings in syndepositional cracks and voids a characteristic remanence similar to that identified in a previous study was found in six autochthonous sites in outcrop and four diamond drill cores with a mean direction of declination d 27 5 inclination i 19 9 half angle of 95 confidence cone 95 15 2 the primary origin of this remanence was demonstrated by both a syndepositional breccia test and an allochthonous block test the corresponding late devonian pole position 62 0 s 23 2 e with half angle of 95 confidence cone a95 14 6 overlaps with the previously reported paleopole from this reef complex and other late devonian paleopoles from australia the evidence indicates that the spread of late middle to early carboniferous paleopoles from australia is caused by a phase of rapid apparent polar wander rather than the tectonic discordance of southeastern australia in relation to the craton

thermally activated viscous remanence in some magnetite and hematite bearing dolomites a brunhes age viscous remanent magnetization vrm carried by magnetite and hematite in the el paso and montoya dolomite formations has unblocking temperatures significantly higher than those predicted by single domain theory the samples appear to contain a substantial fraction of pseudo single domain magnetite suggesting transdomain processes may be responsible for the stable vrm a strong inverse correlation between the occurrence of high unblocking temperatures and high isothermal remanence fractions acquired above 0 3 tesla suggests that the hematite grain size may also be important in determining the range of observed temperatures larger grains are inferred to have lower coercivities but higher unblocking temperatures an older reverse polarity component is also observed and appears to be a record of late cretaceous tertiary tectonic activity

syn deformational remanent magnetization of the mount eclipse sandstone central australia summary the palaeomagnetism of the latest devonian early carboniferous mount eclipse sandstone in central australia reveals samples from 16 out of 31 sites having a consistent hightemperature component of natural remanent magnetization site mean directions from the two limbs of the most detailed studied syncline attain their best grouping after 75 per cent of unfolding and further unfolding causes a cross over feature mineralogical studies using microscope and electron microprobe show that this remanance is most likely to be carried by secondary haematite formed by alteration of fe rich minerals during the midcarboniferous deformation four different models are examined to reconstruct the palaeohorizontal for the syn deformational remanence the best estimate of the palaeomagnetic south pole position is lat 33 8 s and long 121 2 e dp 19 2 drn 19 7 close to australia this result indicates a rapid polanvard movement of eastern gondwanaland during the first half of the carboniferous we also suggest that the widespread alice springs orogeny related overprints in central australia were acquired during the beginning of the main phase of deformation in the mid carboniferous

holocene climate change inferred from stratigraphy and osl chronology of aeolian sediments in the qaidam basin northeastern qinghai tibetan plateau abstract paleoclimatic reconstruction based on aeolian sediments in the eastern qaidam basin qb has been hindered by the limited chronological data here we present 61 optically stimulated luminescence osl ages on the basis of these osl ages and the lithologic stratigraphy we propose the effective moisture index emi for aeolian sediments to reconstruct the effective moisture change based on the emi from twelve sections the effective moisture change moisture sources and relevant mechanisms for paleoclimatic change in the eastern qb are discussed the results indicate that 1 aeolian deposition started at least before 12 4 0 7 ka during the deglaciation the paleosols developed at the early and mid holocene and aeolian sand and loess accumulated at mid and late holocene 2 effective moisture history was hyper arid at 12 8 11 6 ka humid and variable at 11 6 8 3 ka moderately humid and stable at 8 3 3 5 ka and increasingly arid at 3 5 0 ka 3 the effective moisture change was mainly controlled by the asian summer monsoon asm which mainly followed the change of northern hemispheric summer insolation and the westerlies strengthened and increased the aridity in the qb when the asm shrank

holocene incisions and flood activities of the keriya river nw margin of the tibetan plateau abstract fluvial terraces are common in the tectonically active western kunlun mountains wklm region northwestern margin of the tibetan plateau and incision of rivers since 5 ka was attributed to the accelerated uplift of the wklm however it is difficult to evaluate their tectonic or climatic origin without detailed chronology in this study optically stimulated luminescence osl dating was applied to fluvial flood and aeolian sediments on five lowest fluvial terraces 49 m in total along the keriya river and the 21 osl ages from 11 samples revealed the incision processes since the mid holocene especially the fast incision 3 5 0 ka 10 9 mm a during the late holocene this was supported by the climatic background i e increased precipitation from the westerlies and meltwater from frequent glacial advance retreat events as a response to the climatic changes large scale floods were frequent as well e g at 3 5 2 6 0 87 and 0 25 ka which were crucial for the fast incisions on the filling gravels additionally the flood also caused the river s further extension into the taklamakan desert and controlled the evolution of oases in the desert including ancient cities and cultures consequently we suggest that climatic change was important for the incision and formation of cut in fill terraces along the keriya river during the holocene and influences from other factors including surface uplift should not be ignored but were difficult to be evaluated

paleomagnetic results indicate pre permian counter clockwise rotation of the southern tamworth belt southern new england orogen australia 1 visean ignimbrites from three fault bounded blocks within the southern tamworth belt southern new england orogen australia retain a prefolding high temperature component of remanence carried mainly by magnetite paleomagnetic data indicate that the southern tamworth belt occupied low to moderate paleolatitudes during the early carboniferous normal and reversed polarities with low to moderate inclinations suggest that the steep reverse polarity latest carboniferous to earliest permian overprint is absent from the high temperature component data set the mean characteristic remanence direction of three early to middle visean ignimbrite flows 32 sites from the rouchel block is declination dec 154 2 and inclination inc 38 8 95 12 5 k 98 8 which corresponds to a paleo south pole at latitude 64 9 s longitude 258 1 e dp 5 5 dm 9 2 where dp is the angular length of the semiaxis of the ellipse of confidence of the calculated paleopole that lies along the pole to site great circle and dm is the angular length of the semiaxis perpendicular to dp six middle to late visean ignimbrite flows 29 sites from the gresford block retain a mean remanence of dec 159 6 and inc 54 1 95 13 7 k 24 7 corresponding to a paleo south pole at latitude 72 8 s longitude 228 4 e dp 13 4 dm 19 2 despite widespread overprinting throughout much of the myall block reliable information was obtained from three late visean ignimbrite flows five sites with a mean direction of dec 118 1 and inc 42 5 95 12 0 k 41 6 from which a paleo south pole of latitude 35 7 s longitude 233 4 e dp 9 1 dm 14 7 is calculated the calculated paleo south poles do not fall on the early carboniferous segment of the published apparent polar wander path for australia and suggest that the southern tamworth belt has undergone significant counter clockwise rotation relative to cratonic australia inferred rotations for the rouchel gresford and myall blocks are approximately 80 80 and 120 respectively stratigraphic and geological evidence suggest rotation took place between the mid namurian and latest carboniferous and is thought to have resulted from sinistral strike slip during compression at the eastern margin of australia

dynamic reorganization of river basins river networks evolve as migrating drainage divides reshape river basins and change network topology by capture of river channels we demonstrate that a characteristic metric of river network geometry gauges the horizontal motion of drainage divides assessing this metric throughout a landscape maps the dynamic states of entire river networks revealing diverse conditions drainage divides in the loess plateau of china appear stationary the young topography of taiwan has migrating divides driving adjustment of major basins and rivers draining the ancient landscape of the southeastern united states are reorganizing in response to escarpment retreat and coastal advance the ability to measure the dynamic reorganization of river basins presents opportunities to examine landscape scale interactions among tectonics erosion and ecology

palaeomagnetism of the brewer conglomerate in central australia and fast movement of gondwanaland during the late devonian summary palaeomagnetic analysis of 11 diamond drill cores from the late devonian brewer conglomerate in the northeastern part of the amadeus basin central australia yields three magnetic components a drilling induced remanence c1 acquired during the industrial drilling process a mid to late carboniferous syndeformational overprint c2 acquired during the alice springs orogeny and a primary remanence c3 c3 passes a fold test and gives a latest devonian pole bc at 47 1ds 041 0de with a95 6 4d the revised apwp for gondwanaland requires west gondwanaland to drift across the south pole during the late devonian with a speed of 20cm yr 1 while east gondwanaland remained at low latitude positions it is suggested that fast plate movement occurred far more often during the palaeozoic than has previously been thought

new cambrian and ordovician paleomagnetic poles for the north china block and their paleogeographic implications multicomponent magnetization has been revealed in several cambrian and ordovician sedimentary units from localities in hebei and shandong provinces of the north china block ncb a well defined component with lower unblocking temperature is characterized by northerly declination and moderate to steep inclination with both polarities and postdates the late cretaceous folding the pole position derived from the overprinted directions is close to both the cretaceous pole for the ncb as well as the present north pole the overprint is not a simple thermal remanent magnetization but is probably a chemical remanent magnetization imposed at moderately elevated temperature during the major episode of regional deformation in the late mesozoic the higher unblocking temperature characteristic components pass reversal baked contact and fold tests and are internally consistent with rocks of different lithologies from widely distributed localities moreover the data exhibit an overall similarity in the magnetic polarity pattern in the stratigraphic sequence at sampled localities hence the high unblocking temperature characteristic component was probably acquired at or near the time of deposition the cambrian and ordovician paleopoles are somewhat different from the other coeval poles for the ncb which are based on much less data and do not pass as many reliability tests but all imply that the ncb was in the equatorial zone in the early paleozoic

rockmagnetic properties of fine grained natural low temperature haematite with reference to remanence acquisition mechanisms in red beds summary grain size dependence of some remanent magnetic properties of a natural low temperature haematite is reported the haematite was obtained from a gossan in montarnu france and upgraded by magnetic separation seven grain size fractions were prepared ranging from 10 down to 0 25 m by means of microprecision sieving and centrifuging the haematite has an average crystallite size of 60 nm and contains minor contents of si al and h2o its unit cell dimensions are very close to those of ideal haematite the magnetic properties of the haematite are strongly dependent on its thermal history for the original unheated haematite fractions the isothermal saturation remanence jrs decreases with grain size the remanent coercive force hcr remanent acquisition coercive force hcr and median destructive field of the saturation remanence h1 2i are maximal in the 1 0 0 5 m fraction this grain size range can be understood as the sd threshold size in analogy with ferrimagnetic minerals jrs hcr x xin is a useful grain size indicator lowtemperature cycling of jrs shows identical behaviour for all fractions the remanence decreases slightly and shows no sharp morin transition after annealing the haematite fractions at 700 c jrs is considerably reduced relative to the original haematite predominantly due to removal of the defect moment both hcr and hcr have increased and their maximal values are shifted to the 2 1 1 0 m fraction all fractions show a much sharper morin transition during low temperature cycling of jrs due to crystallite enlargement trm decreases with grain size the different rock magnetic properties before and after annealing might provide a basis for the discrimination in sediments between a haematite drm with a high temperature origin and a haematite crm which has a low temperature origin two natural red beds one with a crm and one with a drm associated with high temperature haematite broadly show the expected differences in coercivity and in annealing behaviour although a full account of all aspects of the observed behaviour can not yet be given

palaeomagnetism of red beds of the late devonian worange point formation se australia summary gently folded strata of the late devonian merrimbula group along the south coast of new south wales are similar to numerous deposits of late devonian to early carboniferous subaerial to shallow marine quartzose sandstone that are known as the lambie facies of se australia because the lambie sands overlap the early palaeozoic tectonic elements of the lachlan fold belt large displacement since the late devonian of any lachlan terranes with respect to interior australia is precluded we collected oriented core samples from 37 sites primarily in reddish quartzose litharenites of the worange point formation the remanent magnetization is carried by haematite incremental thermal demagnetization reveals a dominant well defined steep upward north component of magnetization that post dates the mid carboniferous folding the south pole position 146 4 e 68 6 s ag5 3 1 derived from the overprinted specimens is close to both the late carboniferous and mid cretaceous reference poles as well as the spin axis of today the overprint is attributed to both viscous partial thermoremanent and chemical remanent magnetization vptrm and crm its exclusively normal polarity is consistent with a mid cretaceous acquisition perhaps related to the rifting of the se australian margin a characteristic component of magnetization is isolated between 660 and 680 c in 30 per cent of the samples although a regional fold test of the overall result is inconclusive because the directions of characteristic magnetization are generally close to the axes of folding two sets of samples from opposite limbs of a local syncline pass a fold test at 90 per cent confidence indicating a pre folding origin of the remanence the presence of both polarities in thin horizons some of which are palaeosols and diagenetic haematite associated with incipient cleavage formed in an early stage of deformation before folding indicates that the acquisition of remanent magnetization occurred over a protracted period an analysis that combines great circle demagnetization paths and set points facilitates the incorporation of more data but gives a biassed result although normal and reverse polarity subsets are roughly antipodal residual post folding components cause the normal subset to fail a fold test a south pole position 19 7 e7 70 8 s ag5 7 1 is derived from the specimens with characteristic component of reverse polarity in which the isolation of a characteristic component is clear the pole position is close to that of a previous palaeomagnetic study from a widely separated occurrence of lambie facies sediments both results are applicable not only to the lachlan fold belt but also to the rest of australia and gondwana as a whole the position of the two poles derived from the lambie facies overlap assemblage in the lachlan fold belt supports the interpretation that the progression

variables and potential models for the bleaching of luminescence signals in fluvial environments abstract luminescence dating of fluvial sediments rests on the assumption that sufficient sunlight is available to remove a previously obtained signal in a process deemed bleaching however luminescence signals obtained from sediment in the active channels of rivers often contain residual signals this paper explores and attempts to build theoretical models for the bleaching of luminescence signals in fluvial settings we present two models one for sediment transported in an episodic manner such as flood driven washes in arid environments and one for sediment transported in a continuous manner such as in large continental scale rivers the episodic flow model assumes that the majority of sediment is bleached while exposed to sunlight at the near surface between flood events and predicts a power law decay in luminescence signal with downstream transport distance the continuous flow model is developed by combining the beer lambert law for the attenuation of light through a water column with a general order kinetics equation to produce an equation with the form of a double negative exponential the inflection point of this equation is compared with the sediment concentration from a rouse profile to derive a non dimensional number capable of assessing the likely extent of bleaching for a given set of luminescence and fluvial parameters although these models are theoretically based and not yet necessarily applicable to real world fluvial systems we introduce these ideas to stimulate discussion and encourage the development of comprehensive bleaching models with predictive power

the occurrence and origin of late paleozoic remagnetization in the sedimentary rocks of north america although it has been known for 25 years that some paleozoic sedimentary rock units in europe and north america were remagnetized during pennsylvanian or permian time it is only very recently that the complex and widespread nature of the late paleozoic remagnetization phenomenon has been generally acknowledged it is now recognized that many paleozoic paleomagnetic poles for north america that were once considered reliable are in fact the result of remagnetization and as a consequence the paleomagnetic data base for the paleozoic is undergoing rapid and drastic revision the causes of late paleozoic remagnetization in north america are currently the focus of much interest and active research the remagnetization can reside in either hematite or magnetite and different remagnetization mechanisms have been important in different settings chemical remagnetization processes some related to specific diagenetic events are dominant in hematite bearing sandstones and carbonates in magnetite bearing carbonates both chemical and thermoviscous remagnetization processes appear to have been important but it is difficult to determine which process is the dominant one in some settings some of the observed remagnetizations can be linked to the migration of chemically active and perhaps hot fluids during the mountain building events that affected much of the continent during the late paleozoic paleomagnetic studies promise to be important in assessing the role of orogeny in driving fluid migrations within sedimentary basins and in constraining the age of the migrations and the nature of the fluids

pre and post folding magnetizations from the early devonian snowy river volcanics and buchan caves limestone victoria summary multicomponent magnetizations of the snowy river volcanics have been resolved into pre folding dec 340 1 inc 59 2 and post folding dec 10 5 inc 72 3 elements the former is attributed to initial cooling of the volcanics while the latter is probably related to the waning stages of the deformational episode which was presumably accompanied by cooling we argue that the pole position from the pre folding magnetizations lat 74 3 s long 222 7 e represents the australian palaeopole for the early devonian a reassessment of other australian pole positions determined from rocks of about this age suggests that remagnetization during the carboniferous may be common interpretation of the pole path prior to the devonian is equivocal and awaits further study the post folding magnetizations from the volcanics are similar in stability and direction to those from the buchan caves limestone dec 27 8 inc 75 6 which appears to be completely remagnetized the age of this remagnetizing event appears to be mid carboniferous if our interpretation of the pole path for this time is correct it is noted that a much unappreciated attribute of the fold test lies with identifying not just the relative age of magnetization but also the palaeohorizontal only when the palaeohorizontal is established can the calculation of a palaeopole be justified

thermal evolution of rifted continental margins new evidence from fission tracks in basement apatites from southeastern australia the palaeozoic granitic basement of southeastern australia shows a regular pattern of apatite fission track ages which is dominated by a rapid decrease in apparent age towards the rifted continental margin apparent ages away from the margin vary between about 230 and 360 myr but drop sharply to minimum values of around 80 myr near the coast just south of the sydney basin and 150 175 myr elsewhere along the coast fission track length information allows the age pattern to be interpreted as the result of partial to complete resetting of the older ages by a widespread thermal event at about 80 100 myr this event accompanied the rift phase of passive margin development and peaked just before the onset of sea floor spreading in the adjacent tasman sea the zone of reduced apatite ages is deeply embayed around the gippsland basin supporting the suggestion that it originated as a cretaceous failed arm of the tasman rift system the thermal event has affected apatites up to about 130 km from the margin and has produced a characteristic set of bimodal track length distributions in apatites with partially reset ages the bimodality gradually disappears towards the oldest apatite ages which have negatively skewed unimodal distributions the youngest apatites also tend towards unimodal length distributions indicating that thermal annealing of pre existing tracks in these samples went almost to completion maximum temperatures reached in samples presently exposed in the coastal area were thus probably about 110 120 c thermal activity was accompanied by considerable uplift across the region followed by gradual erosion to expose the present land surface post breakup erosion was generally greater towards the new coastline with near coastal samples being previously buried a probable 1 5 2 5 km

the demagnetization temperature necessary to remove viscous remanent magnetization recent experimental studies have shown that the temperature necessary to demagnetize viscous remanent magnetization vrm in magnetite bearing rocks is significantly higher than predicted by standard neel single domain theory the walton time temperature equation which has been invoked by some to explain the enhanced thermal stability actually relates intensities of vrms acquired at different temperatures rather than describing the unblocking of a previously acquired vrm we show that the low field approximation lfa used in all previous formulations which predicts equal vrm acquisition and decay rates is not valid for a magnetite assemblage in the earth s field a medium field approximation mfa predicts significantly faster vrm acquisition and therefore greater thermal stability in decay for the larger particles in the assemblage conventional theory does apply to red bed acquisition decay experiments since the lfa is valid for hematite

paleomagnetism of the carboniferous tepuel group central patagonia argentina samples of the carboniferous glaciogenic sequences of the tepuel group western central patagonia argentina were collected from 23 sites in two localities sierra de tepuel 43 7 s 70 5 w and las salinas 43 2 s 70 3 w most were fine sandstones to siltstones of late visean to westphalian age a characteristic remanent magnetization was determined in most sites by alternating field and or thermal cleaning at sierra de tepuel all samples were partially overprinted by a secondary magnetization apparently related to mesozoic magmatic activity in this area however site mean directions of the characteristic remanence from both localities passed a tilt test indicating a pretectonic pre early permian magnetization isothermal remanent magnetization experiments showed magnetite as the main and often the only magnetic carrier while thin section analyses indicated a detrital origin for this mineral suggesting a depositional or postdepositional magnetization the paleomagnetic pole for the tepuel group namurian westphalian at 316 1 e 31 7 s number of sites n 16 minor and major semi axes of confidence p 15 0 m 16 0 is considered a key pole for the middle carboniferous of south america and gondwana confirming the apparent polar wander path for the supercontinent for which the pole moved from central to southern africa in the early carboniferous followed by a rapid motion from southern africa to antarctica during the late westphalian the agreement of the tepuel pole with this gondwanan path confirms that patagonia was already part of south america by the middle carboniferous

palaeomagnetism of the late devonian early carboniferous achala batholith cordoba central argentina implications for the apparent polar wander path of gondwana abstract the achala batholith 31 30 s 64 45 w cordoba argentina is a major magmatic complex of the sierras pampeanas emplaced as a post orogenic pluton in a metamorphic plutonic basement it is mainly a porphyritic to coarse grained equigranular monzogranite with crystallization age of 370 and cooling age of 340 ma presently exposed as asymmetric eastward tilted blocks forty three sites were sampled in the achala monzogranite overall it is weakly magnetic with a mean magnetic susceptibility of 15 10 5 si twenty two sites showed unstable magnetic behaviour the remaining 21 sites have haematite as magnetic carrier of a stable remanence the ilmeno haematite appears as an accessory mineral with exsolved intergrowths of haemo ilmenite thermal demagnetisation up to 620 640 c isolated steeply dipping dual polarity remanence directions the palaeomagnetic pole is located at 56 s 307 e n 18 a95 10 7 k 11 the remanence was locked on cooling over a range of temperatures from magnetic ordering to exsolution of ilmenite haematite 600 to 390 c the pole better coincides with the 370 360 ma segment of the gondwana apparent polar wander path suggesting that remanence was acquired quickly the achala pole matches a complex mid palaeozoic apparent polar wander path y type for gondwana which may involve rapid movement true polar wander episodes and or continental collisions before the final amalgamation of pangea

paleomagnetism of the hervey group central new south wales and its tectonic implications paleomagnetic work on the hervey group in southeast australia reveals a predeformational magnetization as suggested by the retention of a predeformational compaction produced magnetic fabric and the effect of deformation on both the magnetic fabric and the direction of the magnetic remanence in cleaved rocks the formation mean direction d 29 2 i 19 3 with 95 15 5 gives a latest devonian early carboniferous palaeomagnetic pole at 54 4 s 24 1 e with dp 8 4 dm 16 2 comparing this pole with existing poles from australia and north america it is suggested that 1 the lachlan fold belt of southeast australia has been part of cratonic australia since at least the late devonian and consequently the late palaeozoic palaeomagnetic data from the lfb may be applied to the whole of gondwanaland 2 cratonic australia and the new england fold belt were all in an equatorial position during the early carboniferous 3 there was probably a rapid anticlockwise rotation of gondwanaland during the late devonian around an axis close to australia 4 a v shaped ocean existed between laurussia and the northern margin of western gondwanaland during the late devonian early carboniferous the appalachian hercynian orogenic belt is probably the result of the closure of this ocean

redbeds and thermoviscous magnetization theory thermal demagnetization character istics of a brunhes age viscous overprint in appalachian redbeds and a thermoviscous component acquired in the laboratory at moderate tempera ture agree well with relaxation time blocking temperature relations for hematite proposed by pullaiah et al 1975 supporting evidence was obtained from redbeds associated with an igneous dike intrusion although the interpretation of these data are complicated by magnetochemical alterations paradoxically experimental data for magnetite in some limestones were shown to agree more closely with an alternative theory of walton 1980 the hematite in redbeds is predominantly singledomain sd whereas magnetite in the lime stones studied extends well into the multidomain md range thus experiment and theory could be reconciled if it is assumed that pullaiah eta applies strictly to sd material whereas waltoh s theory somehow describes thermoviscous effects dominated by larger md grains

prefolding and premegakinking magnetizations from the devonian comerong volcanics new south wales australia and their bearing on the gondwana pole path palaeomagnetic results from the late middle to early late devonian comerong volcanics in the budawang synclinorium lachlan fold belt lfb new south wales australia satisfy a fold test and support the hypothesis that foliated parts of the lfb have been folded by megakinks during the terminal mid carboniferous orogenic phase the preferred pole position is at 76 9 s 330 7 e a95 7 2 allowing calibration of the australian pole path at around 370 ma ago an alterative pole position at 71 3 s 283 1 e same a95 takes into account a possible rotation of the megakinked terrane by 15 clockwise with respect to the australian craton although there are still problems unravelling previously published results from silurian rocks in the lfb both because of unreliability and uncertainty as to where the lfb crustal units lay in relation to the australian craton there is no geological reason to suspect any large relative movement between the lfb and the craton since the middle devonian and thus the comerong volcanics pole position is representative of the late devonian for australia the new pole requires reassessment of many other poles that have previously been accepted as representing the siluro devonian for australia and gondwanaland we present reasons for believing that the magnetization or remagnetization of many rock units e g mereenie sandstone and mulga downs group australia and the gneigura supergroup africa was later than sedimentation probably during widespread early carboniferous deformation another rock unit msissi norite africa could be of early carboniferous rather than late devonian age

tibetan plateau river incision inhibited by glacial stabilization of the tsangpo gorge much attention has focused on how and when the tibetan plateau formed but far less research has been done on the controls on river incision into the plateau itself oliver korup and david montgomery address this issue which also relates to the question of why the tibetan plateau is still there at all despite hosting one of the deepest gorges on earth the plateau edge is extremely well defined and according to widely accepted stream power theory should be heavily dissected by one of asia s most powerful rivers the yarlung tsangp or yarlung zangbo korup and montgomery propose that the southeastern edge of the plateau was preserved in part by the presence of glaciers that were large enough during the holocene to stall aggressive river downcutting along the plateau margin a considerable amount of research has focused on how and when the tibetan plateau formed in the wake of tectonic convergence between india and asia1 although far less enquiry has addressed the controls on river incision into the plateau itself2 widely accepted theory3 predicts that steep fluvial knick points river reaches with very steep gradients in the eastern himalayan syntaxis at the southeastern plateau margin should erode rapidly4 driving a wave of incision back into the plateau preservation of the plateau edge thus presents something of a conundrum that may be resolved by invoking either differential rock uplift matching erosional decay5 6 7 or other mechanisms for retarding bedrock river incision8 9 in this region where high stream power excludes the potential for aridity as a simple limit to dissection of the plateau10 here we report morphologic evidence showing that quaternary depression of the regional equilibrium line altitude where long term glacier mass gain equals mass loss was sufficient to repeatedly form moraine dams on major rivers such damming substantially impeded river incision into the southeastern edge of the tibetan plateau through the coupled effects of upstream impoundment and interglacial aggradation such glacial stabilization of the resulting highly focused river incision centred on the tsangpo gorge could further contribute to initiating and accentuating a locus of rapid exhumation known as tectonic anaeurysm6

australian palaeozoic palaeomagnetism and tectonics ii a revised apparent polar wander path and palaeogeography abstract new palaeomagnetic data from mid to late palaeozoic rocks in australia have enabled us to revise the palaeozoic apparent polar wander path apwp this modified australian apwp is supported by data from other parts of gondwanaland the palaeomagnetic poles indicate that during the early and mid palaeozoic australia underwent rapid rotation first clockwise during the mid ordovician to the early silurian then counterclockwise from the mid silurian until the end of the devonian while it remained at low to equatorial latitudes this was succeeded by a rapid southward movement during mid carboniferous times the implications of the palaeomagnetic data for the tectonic relationship between the lachlan fold belt lfb and cratonic australia are consistent with the tectonic evidence that the lfb has been in place since the mid devonian

paleozoic paleogeography of north america gondwana and intervening displaced terranes comparisons of paleomagnetism with paleoclimatology and biogeographical patterns new paleomagnetic data have become available in the past 5 yr that require modifications in previously published paleogeographic reconstructions for the silurian and devonian in this paper the new paleopoles are compared to published paleogeographic models based on paleoclimatologic and biogeographic data the data from the three fields of paleomagnetism paleoclimatology and biogeography are generally in excellent agreement and an internally consistent paleogeographic evolutionary picture of the interactions between north america gondwana and intervening displaced terranes is emerging during the interval of the ordovician silurian and devonian north america stayed in equatorial paleoposition while rotating counter clockwise the northwest african part of gondwana was in high southerly latitudes during the late ordovician and was fringed by peri gondwanide terranes such as southern europe armorica and avalonian basement blocks now found in eastern newfoundland nova scotia the boston basin the appalachian piedmont and northern florida subsequently gondwana and the peri gondwanide terranes displayed rapid drift with respect to the pole this drift translates into the following pattern of movement for northwest africa during the latest ordovician early silurian this area moved rapidly northward from polar to subtropical latitudes followed by equally rapid southward motion from subtropical to intermediate about 50 s paleolatitudes during the late silurian middle devonian it is likely that significant east to west motion accompanied the latter shift in paleolatitudes with the caledonian acadian orogeny the result of silurian to early devonian convergence and collision between gondwana and north america this collision sandwiched several of the intervening displaced terranes between gondwana and north america subsequent to this collision gondwana was separated in the late devonian by a medium width ocean from north america and the avalonian and southern european blocks which were left behind adjacent to north america this new ocean closed during the carboniferous and the resulting convergence and collision were the cause of the hercynian alleghanian orogenic belt problems remaining for future research besides the further gathering of reliable paleopoles involve the uncertain pre devonian position of the southern british isles in this scenario and the very rapid velocity with respect to the pole that results from the rapid late ordovician silurian apparent polar wander for gondwana