| Summary: | Magnetic anisotropy-based inclinations corrections have been performed in the paleomagnetic laboratory at Lehigh University, on both hematite and magnetite-bearing sedimentary rocks. Results of these corrections indicate a latitudinal variation of inclination shallowing with the formations initially located at mid latitudes suffering from more shallowing than those initially closer to the equator, consistent with the tan (Im)= f * tan (If) relationship observed by King (1955) for inclination shallowing, where Im is the measured inclination and If is the field inclination during deposition. Shallowing of the paleomagnetic vectors can be expressed in terms of the flattening factor f, that relates tan (Im) to tan (If). Anisotropy- derived hematite f factors from the Maritime Provinces of Canada and Northwest China were combined with f factors derived from corrections that use models of geomagnetic field secular variation (the EI technique of Tauxe and Kent, 2004) on red bed Formations from North America, Greenland and Europe. The dataset was used to derive a probability density function for f. The mean f value will allow a simplified inclination correction for hematite-bearing red bed formations that are suspected to be affected by inclination shallowing. This approach was tested by correcting the Permian Esterel Group red beds from France: using the distribution mean f factor of 0.64 (±0.11, ±1 standard deviation), the corrected red bed paleopole becomes statistically indistinguishable from the paleopole measured for the Esterel Group volcanic rocks that have not suffered from inclination shallowing. f data was also compiled for magnetite-bearing sedimentary rocks from the Perforada Formation and the Valle Group from Baja California, Mexico, the Pigeon Point Formation of Central California, the Ladd and the Point Loma Formations from Southern California, the Nanaimo Group of British Columbia and the Deer Lake Group of Newfoundland that have been corrected for inclination shallowing, yielding a most probable f ...
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