Palaeomagnetic palaeolatitudes of the Ontong Java Plateau from 120 to 55 Ma: implications for the apparent polar wander path of the Pacific Plate

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

1

Deep-Water Carbonates, Ocean Drilling Program, Ontong Java Plateau, Pacific Apparent Polar Wander Path, Palaeolatitude, Palaeomagnetism

Scientific paper

We present palaeomagnetic inclinations from Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary deep-water carbonates obtained during ODP Leg 192 drilling at the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) for the following periods: magnetochrons C33n (73.6-79.1 Ma), C32 (71.1-73.6 Ma), C27r-C31n (61.3-68.7 Ma) and C25-C26 (55.9-60.9 Ma). Compaction-induced inclination shallowing is considered to be negligible for the OJP sediments examined here because: (i) their palaeomagnetic inclinations are in excellent accord with those recently obtained from underlying OJP basement rocks, (ii) the studied sediments have anisotropy of anhysteretic remanent magnetization fabrics that appear poorly correlated with individual characteristic remanent magnetization inclinations and (iii) in the few cases where we observe a significant difference between our new OJP sedimentary palaeomagnetic data and data from other parts of the Pacific Plate, obtained mainly from seamount magnetization studies and skewness analyses, the sedimentary inclinations are not systematically lower, and therefore, cannot be explained in terms of inclination shallowing. Combining our new data with existing OJP palaeomagnetic data we obtain an internally consistent data set that we interpret to indicate northward motion of the plateau from its formation at ~120 Ma until 55 Ma. At 120 Ma the central plateau was located at 24° +/- 4°S. Approximately 45 Myr later (~76 Ma) the plateau is located near 21°S. Our data, therefore, indicate that the OJP was either stationary or exhibited a slow northward latitudinal drift during this interval. In contrast, from ~76 Ma until 68 Ma the plateau moved rapidly through approximately 10° of latitude to ~10°S. These intervals of slow and rapid motion track similar motions previously proposed for the entire Pacific Plate during the Cretaceous but extends the interval of slow motion into the Late Cretaceous. From 68 Ma until 56 Ma the plateau was again almost latitudinally stationary before moving slowly northward. More direct palaeomagnetic data are necessary to better define Pacific Plate motions during this time interval.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Palaeomagnetic palaeolatitudes of the Ontong Java Plateau from 120 to 55 Ma: implications for the apparent polar wander path of the Pacific Plate does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Palaeomagnetic palaeolatitudes of the Ontong Java Plateau from 120 to 55 Ma: implications for the apparent polar wander path of the Pacific Plate, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Palaeomagnetic palaeolatitudes of the Ontong Java Plateau from 120 to 55 Ma: implications for the apparent polar wander path of the Pacific Plate will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-767718

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.