14th December: 100 million years of polar wandering, as seen by North America

Chris: One of the most important products of paleomagnetic studies is the ‘Apparent Polar Wander Path’ or APWP, which is a of record the motion of a tectonic plate relative to the (relatively) fixed magnetic pole (this is why it is ‘apparent’ polar wander, because it is not the pole that is wandering, but the rocks you are taking your measurements from!).

This figure is one reconstruction of the APWP for North America. My graduate student Chenjian Fu is investigating the most effective ways of turning paleomagnetic data of varying quality and age from a plate into a reliable path, and is at AGU today presenting a poster on his research.

Return to the Advent Calendar

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.