The wandering pole: tracing the time-averaged paleomagnetic pole in the face of secular variation ...

• Main Author: Vaes, Bram
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: Geomagnetic Pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-2015; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5018831

<!--!introduction!--> Paleomagnetism serves as the principal tool for the quantitative reconstruction of Earth’s paleogeography, thereby providing key input for geodynamics, paleoclimatology and paleobiology. Paleomagnetic data have been used for >60 years to quantify the apparent motion of the time-averaged paleomagnetic pole relative to a fixed continent or tectonic plate through time. By assuming that the time-averaged geomagnetic pole coincides with the Earth’s spin axis, this polar motion can be translated into the motion of a continent or plate relative to the geographic pole. However, obtaining a reliable estimate of the time-averaged pole position requires the averaging of the short-term, secular variation of Earth’s magnetic field. Here, I show that coeval paleomagnetic poles derived from datasets underrepresenting paleosecular variation or based on a smaller number of paleomagnetic sites are more dispersed and often biased compared to poles that adequately sample secular variation. This ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...