Tecfonophysics, 187 (1991) 135-179 135

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

Pangea in Permian to Jurassic time

A.G. Smith a and R.A. Livermore b

a Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ. United Kingdom
b British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 OET, United Kingdom

(Received by publisher July 31, 1990)

ABSTRACT

Smith, A.G. and Livermore, R.A., 1991. Pangea in Permian to Jurassic time. In: T.W.C. Hilde and R.L. Carlson (Editors),
Silver Anniversary of Plate Tectonics. Tectonophysics, 187: 135-179.

The apparent polar wander paths (= APWPs) for the northern and southern continents have been redetermined using
revised time-scales and data. When plotted on the conventional Pangea, Pangea A, the paths are distinct but essentially linear
and parallel from Late Carboniferous to Late Permian time. Both paths then undergo a sharp change in direction and
converge so as to overlap in Early to Middle Jurassic time. If the Penno-Triassic magnetic field was an axial dipole, then
paleomagnetic data show that Pangea was mobile during most, and possibly all, of the mid-Triassic to mid-Jurassic interval.
Because of the uncertainties in pole ages and positions, and errors in measurements, the new APWPs are consistent with a
range of Pangeas.
In particular. the data are compatible with two paleomagnetic Pangeas: A2 and a new class of Pangea here named the D
Pangeas. These resemble Morel and Irving’s (1981) Pangea B and the C Pangeas of Smith et al. (1981): unlike the A2 Pangeas,
the B, C and D Pangeas all require large (> 2000 km) relative motion between the northern and southern continents.
Geological data require the transition from an earlier Pangea to Pangea A to take place along a transform zone, here
named the Pangea Transform Zone, or PTZ. The PTZ is considered to be tectonically analogous to the Great Glen Fault of
Scotland. Four types of possible PTZ are examined: passing through either the western or eastern end of the Brunswick
Magnetic Anomaly of eastern North America, or north and south of Iberia. The geological data suggest that those Pangeas
that require large displacements on PTZs that pass east of the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly are improbable.
B and C Pangeas are snapshots giving precise paleomagnetic reconstructions. D Pangeas fit long stretches of the APWPs as
well as possible. A2 Pangeas fit the APWPs moderately well but also require the geological displacement to be smaller. The
differences in displacement between the D and A2 Pangeas reflect geometrical relationships between Euler poles, PTZ
curvature and the APWPs. The general geological evidence suggests that D Pangeas are less probable than A2 Pangeas but
that they cannot be rejected. Transition from A2 to A is most likely to have occurred via a sequence of rotations about
different poles rather than a single rotation.
In detail, the conventional Pangea requires modification. Africa must be broken into at lcast two fragments along the
Benue Trough and its northern continuation. Northwest Africa then fits more tightly into northern South America, which
modifies the APWPs and reduces the gap between them. By including the effects of continental extension and using detailed
geological data the gap can be reduced to one in which the A,, circles touch or overlap. Non-dipole fields or an expanding
Earth need not be invoked to explain the mismatch of the APWPs on the conventional Pangea.
The finite rotation required for the older Pangea to Pangea A is very close to Van der Voo and French’s (1974) single
rotation for A2 to A but is actually the sum of three smaller rotations that reflect the modification to Pangea A, continental
extension and the postulated PTZ displacement. Of the possible PTZs, a PTZ parallel to the West African continental
magnetic anomaly with a displacement of about 170 km gives a better fit of this anomaly to the East Coast magnetic anomaly
of North America.
Further refinements to Pangea A2 will depend on a better knowledge of stretching factors on the passive continental
margins of the modified Pangea A and incorporation of rotations due to major faults such as the South Atlas Fault in
Morocco.

Introduction made better sense on a Pangea (Fig. 1) than it did

on the present-day continents provided an im-
Wegener’s (1924) realization that the distribu- portant stimulus to his hypothesis of continental
tion of Permo-Carboniferous ice-age deposits drift. The question of how good the fit of the

0040-1951/91/%03.50 0 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

136
continental edges was for the components of Pan-
gea led Carey (1958) to make some visually excel-
lent reconstructions of the fit between the sub-
marine contours off eastern South America and
western Africa (Fig. 2). The need to evaluate these
fits numerically gave rise to Bullard’s suggestion
of applying Euler’s fixed point theorem to the
problem, and to Everett and Smith’s reconstruc-
tion of the circum-Atlantic continents (Bullard et
al., 1965).
Thus the problem of whether or not Pangea
existed, and if it did, just how well its pieces fit
together, has led to some important developments
in geology. Now that the existence of Pangea has
been established, at least for Early Jurassic time,
an unsolved problem is its nature in the Permian
to Jurassic interval. This paper discusses the prob-
lem by re-examining the relevant geological and
pa&magnetic data for large-scale Permian to
Jurassic displacements between the northern and
Fig. 1. Wegener’s fit of the circum-Atlantic continents.
A.G SMITH AND R.A. LiVERbfORE
Fig. 2. Carey’s (1958) visual fit of the 2000 m submarine
contours of South America and Africa.
southern continents. It does not investigate prob-
lems caused by unresolved continental mismatches
such as the precise position of Iberia within Pan-
gea or how closely Eurasia and North America
fitted together. The resolution of these and other
second-order problems is unlikely to have a sig-
nificant bearing on the fundamental problem: the
discrepancy between geological and paleomagnetic
data.
The structural, fauna1 and sedimentary facies
similarities between parts of the northern and
southern continents lead HaIIam to conclude that
Pangea did not change its configuration from Late
Carboniferous through to Early Jurassic time
(HaIlam, 1983). If the Earth has always main-
tained a dipole field, then this inference can be
tested by paleomagnetic data. Late Carboniferous
to Jurassic paleomagnetic sites are scattered over
much of Pangea (Fig. 3). When plotted on the
conventional Pangea reconstruction, i.e. on a re-
construction similar to that of Bullard et al. (Fig.
4), the Late Paleozoic poles from Gondwanaland
are clearly distinct from those of Laurussia-
North America, Greenland and western Europe-
(Briden et al., 1970; Van der Voo and French,
1974; Van der Voo et al., 1976.1984; Irving, 1977,
1983; Morel and Irving, 1981; Livermore et al.,
1986).
One can envisage a link between the nature of
the Earth’s magnetic field and the distribution of
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME

Fig. 4. The north poies from the sites on Fig. 3 plotted on the
Pangea of Fig. 3 in an Africa-fixed reference frame. The
symbols are coded as in Fig. 3. Note how the data from the
poles from Laurasia and ~ondw~aiand form two separate
groups.
the continents such that the field would be differ-
ent when all the continents are joined together
from what it is when the continents are separate.
For example, when Pangea broke up, there must
have been a global reorganization of plate
boundaries, which would in turn have modified
the global flow pattern in the mantle. Whether the
reorganization was initiated by changes in mantle
convection brought about perhaps by the blanket-
ing effect of a hemispheric distribution of conti-
nents (Le Pichon and Huchon, 1984) or some
other cause is not known. But if mantle flow either
influences the flow in the Earth’s core or is in-
fluenced by it (Cox, 1975, 1981; Bloxham and
Gubbins, 1985; Gubbins, 1988), then the core
flow existing when a supercontinent is present will
differ from that when several continents are pre-
sent. Thus the breakup of Pangea could have been
accompanied by changes in the geomagnetic field.
There is evidence for only a small non-dipole
component in the post-Jurassic geomagnetic field
A.G. SMiTH AND R.A. LIVERMORE
(Livermore et al., 1983, 1984). In contrast to
Coupland and Van der Voo (1980) we do not
believe there is evidence in this time-span for field
models that invoke zonal quadrupole and/or oc-
tupole components that are significantly more than
10% of the dipole field.
Analysis of the Permo-Triassic field has not yet
been possible because, unlike the Middle Jurassic
to present-day ~~onstructions which can be made
by fitting the continental edges or the ocean-floor
spreading anomalies together, Permo-Triassic re-
constructions can be made only if an assumption
is made about the Permo-T~~sic field.
For example, one way that the differences in
Late Paleozoic pole positions between the north-
ern and southern continents on the classic Pangea
have been accounted for is to attribute them to
large zonal geomagnetic field components (Briden
et al., 1970; Vine, 1973) which might reflect the
existence of a supercontinent. This speculation
cannot be tested until a Permo-Triassic recon-
struction is obtained that is independent of the
field, or until the nature of the field is established
on theoretical grounds. Preli~n~ work suggests
that large non-dipole components at this time are
unlikely (Livermore, 1985).
Ptdeomagnetic data
In a previous paper (Livermore et al., 1986),
paleomagnetic poles were selected from published
summaries of data relevant to the interval 320-180
Ma (e.g., Embleton, 1981; Van der Voo, 1981),
applying appropriate paleomagnetic selection
criteria. Since then the dataset has been corrected
and slightly modified (Appendix l), but does not
differ greatly from those used by Morel and Irving
(1981) and Van der Voo et al. (1984). It is unlikely
to be significantly altered by any data that have
accumulated since its compilation.
Results from areas within or east of the Urals
were not included in the European data because of
the existence of a plate boundary between Europe
and Siberia during Carbo~ferous and possibly
Permian time (Fig. 3). Similarly, some Triassic
poles from the I’yrenees were excluded because of
the possibility of later tectonic rotations.
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 139

TABLE 1

Euler rotations

Plate pair Euler rotation for closure a Reference

lat. long. angle

(“) (“) (“)

Gondwanaland
South America to Africa 44.0 - 30.6 57.0 Bullard et al. (1965)
South America to southern Africa (Mll) 45.5 - 32.2 57.5 Rabinowitz and LaBrecque (1979)
South America to northern Africa (MO) 55.1 - 35.1 50.9 Rabinowitz and LaBrecque (1979)
Southern Africa to northern Africa 3.5 -2.6 -11.1 Difference between R and L
poles above
As above, modified to account for Benue trough 19 2 -8 Pindell and Dewey (1982)
Arabia to Africa 36.5 18.0 -4.3 McKenzie et al. (1970)
Co&ran (1981)
Somalia to Arabia 26.5 21.5 5.4 McKenzie et al. (1970)
Co&an (1981)
Madagascar to Somalia 4.0 -71.4 14.4 Segoufin and Patriat (1980)
Antarctica to Africa -2.4 - 32.7 55.4 Norton and Sclater (1979)
Australia to Antarctica 10.3 32.1 - 30.0 Weissel et al. 1977
India to Antarctica 1.0 1.7 - 88.9 Smith and HaIIam (1970)

Laurussia
West Eurasia to North America 88.4 -27.7 - 38.1 Bullard et al. (1965)
79.5 151.9 -25.6 Srivastava and Tapscott (1986)
North America to Africa 67.6 346.0 74.8 Bullard et al. (1965)
67.0 347.7 75.5 Khtgord and Schouten (1986)
Greenland to Europe 60.4 126.3 13.7 Srivastava and Tapscott (1986)

a Latitude N is positive; longitudes are measured going E. Rotation angles are positive if anticlockwise when viewed from above the
Barth’s surface.

Poles for the stable parts of Eurasia west of the
Urals in the Soviet lists were separated from other
European poles because of the difficulties of
assessing their quality.
All Early Permian or younger poles-i.e. poles
younger than 286 Ma-are from parts of con-
tinental plates that appeared to have been stable
since Early Permian time. The Early Permian and
younger sites can be relocated on the Pangea
reassembly by applying Euler rotations by fitting
from ocean-floor magnetic anomalies or least-
squares fits of bathymetric contours data (Table
1).
Some of the remaining pre-Permian poles are
from areas that experienced Late Carboniferous
orogeny, such as the Appalachians of eastern
North America and the Sudetic Mountains of
central Europe (Appendix 1). Such areas may have
been rotated by late erogenic movements and do
not provide as reliable data as do areas within
stable plates.
Stratigraphic ages were referred to the time
scale of Harland et al. (1982) and K-Ar dates
standard&d to the decay constants given by
Steiger and J%ger (1977).
Paleomagnetic results
Introduction
The poles in Fig. 4 plotted by age are shown in
Fig. 5. Visual inspection shows that the pole groups
have a similar distribution in age: the oldest poles
cluster at the southern half of the figure, whereas
the youngest poles cluster in the northern half.
The 210-180 Ma (Early Jurassic) show a consider-
able overlap with one another.
 A.<; SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

et al., 1965). We refer to this as the BES fit (Fig.

6a). Subsequent work (Rabinowitz and LaBrecque,
1979) has shown that the pole for the fit of north-
west Africa to northern South America (Fig. 6b)
in late Aptian time, about 115 Ma ago (Harland et
al., 1982), and just later than MO, is significantly
different from the pole for the fit of southern
South America to southern Africa in the late
Berriasian to the early Valanginian, about 138 Ma
ago (Harland et al., 1982), and just prior to Ml1
time (Table 1). The tightness of the late Albian fit
of Africa to northern South America compared
3w
with that of Bullard et al. (1965) has been con-
firmed by Jones (1987).
Had Africa been a single plate then motion
about the initial pole should have caused compres-
sion between the two continents from the join

0
BES FIT ‘:
1\ x----c
Fig. 5. As for Fig. 4 but the poles are coded by age. Filled
symbols are Laurasian poles; open symbols are Gondwanan
poles. Squares: < 220 Ma; inverted triangles 220-259 Ma;
diamonds 260-299 Ma; circles: > 299 Ma. Except for the
poles younger than 220 Ma, each group clusters in roughly the
same latitude range, but is separated by a longitude difference
of about 20 O.

Method of analysis ‘MO’ FIT

! -
We have subdi~ded the poles into five sets:
three from Lau~ssia-North America, Europe
excfuding Soviet data, and Soviet data; and two
sets from the southern continents-South America
and Africa. All the data have been scanned every
10 Ma with 10, 20, 30 and 40 Ma windows and
A,, circles drawn only where there are four or
04
more poles in the windows. The &s, or standard
error circle, is used here because if the circles of
Fig. 6. (a) The least-squares fit of Bullard et al (1965) obtained
the mean poles do not intersect those of another, by the best statistical fit of the NO-fathom (1000 m) submarine
then the two paths are statistically different (Morel contour. The unfilled space in the Gulf of Mexico region can
and Irving, 1981). accommodate Caribbean and some Central American frag-
ments. (b) As in (a) but with South America fitted against
Africa using the MO fit of Rabinowitz and LaBrecque (1979)
The fit between South America and Africa
for northern South America and West Africa. There is no gap
in the future Gulf of Mexico region. All large pre-Mesozoic
The overall geometrical fit of South America Caribbean and Central American continental fragments prob-
and Africa is statistically well constrained (Bullard ably lay to the west of south America.
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
from Ivory Coast and areas west (Rabinowitz and
LaBrecque, 1979, Fig. 17) for which there is no
evidence.
Because there is no Mesozoic plate margin
within the eastern continental margin of South
America, the difference in motion implied by the
ocean-floor rotations and their ages must be taken
up by a plate margin within Africa, probably
along the Benue trough (Pindell and Dewey, 1982).
However, the differential rotation implied by the
two finite rotations (3.5, -2.6, - 11.1, Table 1)
would give compressional Early Cretaceous mo-
tions in the Benue Trough, which are not ob-
served.
To accommodate the observed left-lateral ex-
tension in the trough Pindell and Dewey modify
the differential rotation to an approximate value
of (19, 2, - 8, Table l), a modification permitted
by the uncertainties in the data (J. LaBrecque,
SAM NP
Fig. 7. (a) APWP for N pole of South America in African-fixed
for windows of 10, 20, 30 and 40 Ma. Data are independent
window; every third point in 30 Ma window; and every fourth point in 40 Ma window.
only, data points for 30 Ma and 40 Ma windows are incomplete
Ma windows. Windows are coded as follows: dotted lines-10
line-40 Ma. (b) APWP for N pole of Africa in present-day
141
pers. commun. quoted by Pindell and Dewey,
1982, p. 193), though how it is determined is not
stated. However, a pole at (19, 2) would also cause
compression on the North African structures fig-
ured by Pindell and Dewey (1982, fig. 9).
The problem of how the poles implied by the
ocean-floor data can be made compatible with the
structures within Africa must be regarded as eased
by their solution, but not solved. We shall refer to
their rotation as the PD rotation (Table 1). When
the PD rotation is applied to all the Gondwana
poles, except those on the northern African plate,
the separation between the two groups of poles is
reduced, principally because some South Ameri-
can poles move closer to Laurussian data. How-
ever, the concordance between them and the
African poles is worse. Adoption of the PD rota-
tion reduces the separation of the two groups by
no more than about one fifth. For the initial
,
AFR ’
60°
W -1
co-ordinates for period 310-190 Ma. Calculated at 10 Ma intervals,
in every point on APWP in 10 Ma window; alternate points in 20 Ma
Because data extend from 320 to 180 Ma
at 190 Ma and 310 Ma. Consistent paths appear only at 30 and 40
Ma, continuous line-20 Ma, dashed line-30 Ma, dashed and dotted
co-ordinates. See Fig. 7a for details. Paths are consistent for 20-40 Ma
window.
142
investigation of the APWP discrepancy the pre-
drift rotation of Rabinowitz and LaBredque (1979)
of (45.5, -32.2, 57.5) is used as the closure pole
for South America to America. It is essentially the
BES fit (Table 1). Other published Euler poles
(e.g., Martin et al., 1981) would not significantly
alter the results. Except where stated, all geo-
graphic co-ordinates quoted are relative to pre-
sent-day Africa.
The paths obtained for 10-40 Ma time windows
are illustrated in Figs. 7a and 7b. The apparent
polar wander path (APWP) for South America is
highly irregular for windows of 10 and 20 Ma but
smoother for 30 and 40 Ma. We presume that the
30 and 40 Ma windows are a smoothed represen-
tation of the real APWP. In the case of Africa
only the 10 Ma window gives a very irregular
APWP: the paths for 20, 30 and 4Q Ma windows
are similar.
We take the 40 Ma windowed paths on the
Ml1 fit as the best estimates of the smoothed
APWPs of South America and Africa as separate
fragments and compare them (Fig. 8). If the ages
are ignored, the two APWPs are statistically indis-
tinguishable: no African Ab3 circle lies completely
off the South American A,, circles and vice versa,
though many circles of the same age do not over-
lap each other. The paths are similar to those
deter~ned by Irving and Irving (19821, showing a
progressive increase of pole latitude from 310 Ma
to about 250 Ma marking a track near the 240”
longitude line, thereafter the 190-250 Ma poles
for Africa all cluster near latitude 65*, whereas
those for South America cluster mostly at 55 “.
There is a suggestion in both paths of eastward
motion at about 260-270 Ma.
We then treat the data as if it had been ob-
tained from a single continent, windowing it as
before. The combined data for a window of 10 Ma
follow an irregular path, whereas the 20, 30 and 40
Ma windowed paths are quite similar. The 10 Ma
windowed path (not shown) is rejected. The 20-40
Ma windowed paths show two distinct segments
along each of which the pole migrates in a more or
less steady manner separated by an angular break
A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE
-‘i-JP
,/’ I
,’
,
-“..
Fig. 8. APWP for 40 Ma window for South America and
Africa in African-fixed co-ordinates. A,, circles shown where
number of poles in window > 3. If ages are ignored the
APWPs are statistically ind~sting~sbable in the sense that AC3
circles overlap one another.
at about 250-260 Ma (20 and 40 Ma paths shown
in Fig. 9). As might be anticipated, the angularity
is most pronounced for the smallest window; 20
Ma.
Though listed in Appendix 1 and shown on
Figs. 4 and 5, poles from India, Madagascar,
Antarctica and Australia have been exciuded from
the Gondwana APWP CaI~ulations, partly because
of uncertainty about the original positions of these
continents relative to Africa and South America.
In addition to these geometrical uncertainties,
many of the poles from these continents that
satisfy the reliability criteria from these continents
are obviously discrepant. The reasons for the dis-
crepancies are generally unclear, though the south-
east Australian poles may have been remagnetized
in Cretaceous time (Schmidt and Embleton, 1981).
We therefore take the South American and Afri-
can combined APWP windowed at 20 Ma as the
APWP for the whole of Gondwanaland for 310-
190 Ma (Fig. 9a).
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
(4 -12OQ
Fig. 9. All poles from South America and Africa have been combined to produce an APWP for (a) 20 Ma window; (b) 40 Ma
window. The 20 Ma APWP is taken here as the reference APWP for Gondwanaland in the interval 310-190 Ma.
The fit between North America and Western Europe
The suggested pre-breakup positions of West-
ern Europe and North America vary from the
Bullard et al. (1965) relatively tight reconstruction
at the 500 fathom (= 1000 m) submarine contour
(Fig. 6a) to the relatively loose fits of Le Pichon et
al. (1977), &later et al. (1977) and Srivastava and
Tapscott (1986).
The looser fits represent the positions of the
ocean/continent boundary after stretching just
sufficient to generate ocean floor. There was sig-
nificant Triassic ~ntinent~ extension between
North America and Europe (Ziegler, 1982, 1988).
Clearly, the original fit prior to breakup was tighter
than that provided by matching the ocean/conti-
nent boundary. In the North Atlantic much new
basaltic material may have been added to the
continental edges by hot-spot activity (White and
McKenzie, 1989) which would have to be removed
to restore the continents to their pre-breakup posi-
tion.
We therefore adopt Bullard et al.‘s (1965) rota-
tion as the appropriate Euler rotation. This deci-
143
60°
4ojwindow Joe
1 -1200
sion is independently supported by Frei and Cox’s
(1987) best fit of the APWPs for North America
and Western Europe in the 290-240 Ma interval.
Their pole is very similar to the Bullard et al’s
pole (Frei and Cox, 1987, fig. 5) though they
propose the Euler angle should be increased from
38” to 42O or even more (Frei and Cox, 1987,
table 5). Such a tight fit implies that continental
stretching between North America and Europe
was substantially greater than that required by
fitting the continental edges together at the 500
fathom (1000 m) submarine contour. However,
Chadwick et al. (1989) confirm the Bullard et al.
rotation and conclude that the rotation angle of
Frei and Cox is too large.
The fit between North America and Africa
It is essential to move all the paleomagnetic
data into the same reference frame. We have cho-
sen Africa as the reference frame. The rotation
adopted here to bring North American data to
Africa is the closure rotation of Khtgord and
Schouten (1986) which is remarkably similar to
144 A G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORt

Bullard et al’s (1965) best-fitting rotation at the ments and smooths the transition from the first
500 fathom submarine contour (Table 1). segment to the second. These segments have been
interpreted by Gordon et al. (1984) as repre-
North American and Western European APWPs senting two periods of stable plate motions
(Carboniferous-Permian-Triassic and Jurassic-
Three separate APWPs have been calculated: Cretaceous) separated by a plate reorganisation.
for North America, for West Europe excluding the They date the cusp between the two as Hettangian
Soviet data and for the Soviet data for West to Pliensbachian (213-194 Ma). The small dif-
Europe at 10 Ma steps for 10, 20, 30 and 40 Ma ference in age between their estimate and ours is
windows (Figs. lOa-c). due to the use of somewhat different datasets.
The North American APWP for a window of The West European paths (Fig. lob), excluding
10 Ma is irregular, but the paths for 20, 30 and 40 Soviet data, are statistically indistinguishable from
Ma are much more regular (Fig. 10a). Two distinct North America for a 40 Ma window, but for
segments are present in the North American smaller windows the A,, circle of West Europe at
APWP: the first shows a steady north movement 260 Ma does not intersect the North American
of the APWP along the 220’ longitude line from circles. Though the APWPs show a possible change
310 Ma to 220 Ma, then the second segment from a north trend to an east trend at 220 Ma, the
shows a range in form from an abrupt east move- West European data in themselves are inadequate
ment (20 Ma window) to a highly curved transi- to support such a change in trend.
tion (40 Ma window). Increasing the time window The Russian data are irregular for a 10 Ma
naturally reduces the angle between the two seg- window, less regular for a 20 and 30 Ma window

USSR NP

60”

b) -1400 :) -1400

Fig. 10. (a) APWP for N pole of North America in Africa-fixed co-ordinates. See Fig. 7 for details of coding of paths. Paths are
consistent for 20-40 Ma windows. Note progressive smoothing of cusp at 220 Ma as time window is increased. (b) APWP for N pole
of Western Europe, excluding Soviet data, in Africa-fixed co-ordinates. Paths are consistent for 20-40 Ma. The 220 Ma cusp in the
North American data may be present in a subdued form. (c). APWP for N pole of Soviet data from European plate in Africa-fixed
co-ordinates. Paths are consistent for 20-40 Ma windows. Data for poles younger than 260 Ma have been omitted.
PANGEtA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 145

and remarkably regular for a 40 Ma window (Fig.

10~). Although the data show an apparent west
migration of the APWP at 240 Ma, this is statisti-
cally of no significance. If ages are ignored and
the Russian A,, circle at 280 Ma and the West
European 260 Ma circle are excluded, then the
Russian, West European and North American data
for a 10 Ma window are statistically indis-
tinguishable. These results show Bullard et al’s fit
to be much better than any of the looser fits (Fig.
11).
Treating all three sets of data as if they had 150”
been obtained from a single continent and Fig. 11. APWP paths for North America (open and filled
windowing it as before, we find the combined data circles); Western Europe (filled squares) and U.S.S.R. (filled
are irregular for a 10 Ma window, whereas the 20, diamonds) plotted in Europe-fixed coordinates. Data points
30 and 40 Ma windowed paths are quite similar. for which there fewer than four poles have been omitted. The
filled circles show the North America APWP rotated by
The 20 Ma and 40 Ma paths are shown on Figs.
Srivastava and Tapscott’s (1986) closure pole for North
12a and 12b. The combined paths show two dis- America and Europe; the open circles show the APWP rotated
tinct segments along each of which the pole to Bullard et al’s (1965) fit of the 500 fathom line. The tighter
migrates steadily north separated by an angular fit gives rise to three statistically indistinguishable APWPs.

60’

‘00

LM. -1200
10

d -1200
Fig. 12. (a) All poles from North America and the European plate (including Soviet data) have been combined to produce an APWP
for 20 Ma window. (b) As (a) but for a 40 Ma window. The 20 Ma APWP is taken here as the reference APWP for Laurasia in the
interval 310-190 Ma.
146 A Ci SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

break at 220 Ma. As might be anticipated, the and cusps tend to disappear. However, the cumu-
angularity is most pronounced for the 20 Ma lative effect of correlation errors, remagnetisation,
window. As in the case of the Gondwana APWP, time-scale errors and the like is to blur the APWPs
we take the 20 Ma windowed path as the best of the northern and southern continents. If the
estimate of the Laurussian APWP for 310-190 field was essentially dipolar, then the only process
Ma. that could have caused separation into two dis-
tinct APWPs is a hemispheric remagnetisation that
Can data errors account for separation into two has affected all the northern continents differently
groups? from all the southern continents. We regard such a
process as too remarkable in its discrimination,
Because of the fundamental importance of the timing and extent to provide a satisfactory ex-
dipole assumption in paleomagnetic work, we first planation of the data.
examine whether the discrepancies between the We therefore accept that the APWPs of the
320-220 Ma paleomagnetic data for the northern northern and southern continents are distinct on
and southern continents can be atrributed to er- the conventional Pangea. Either Pangea was dif-
rors in correlation or the time-scale, or to remag- ferent in the 320-220 Ma time interval or the
netization effects. We assume that any changes in magnetic field was significantly non-dipolar, or
the Earth’s radius in the interval have had no there was some combination of the two. We there-
significant effect on the relation between paleo- fore derive new APWPs from the datasets for the
latitude and inclination. northern and for the southern continents. We then
Errors in correlation will cause a correctly de- attempt to find that reassembly of the northern
termined pole position to be given an incorrect and southern continents which brings the two
age. Since many of the poles have been obtained paths into coincidence and also appears compati-
from poorly fossiliferous, or unfossiliferous, non- ble with the geological data.
marine sequences which are assigned an age only
by correlation to the standard marine stages, cor- Possible modifications to the Laurussian und
relation errors are bound to exist. The magnitude Gondwanan A P WP
of the errors could be greater than 10 Ma where
non-marine beds have to be correlated from one We have investigated several ways of modifying
continent to another. Biostratigraphic correlation all these data to better define the APWPs of
errors could give the age of a pole a value that was Laurussia and Gondwanaland. In the first, all
greater or less than its true value but its position poles lying more than 10 0 from each mean pole of
would still lie on the APWP. the calculated APWP were removed. In the second
Although a new time scale alters the numerical modification, all the pole positions were projected
values assigned to the stratigraphic ages (Harland onto the APWP. Each pole was then assigned a
et al., 1990) the maximum changes are less than new age according to its position relative to parts
5% and will not markedly affect the relutiue posi- of the APWP whose ages were believed to be
tions of the the poles on the reconstruction. relatively well known. To simulate the effect of
Complete remagnetization of the rocks at a possible remagnetisation, APWPs were also de-
later time moves the pole to a new position on the termined by changing only those new ages that
younger part of the APWP. However, if remagne- were younger than the original age. None of these
tization is incomplete and the original and remag- modifications altered the overall shape of the
netized components cannot be distinguished, the grouped APWP, but, as expected, gave a much
measured pole will be at some intermediate posi- more uniformly spaced set of ages on it.
tion that need not lie on the APWP. These modifications have not resulted in im-
The effects of averaging remagnetized poles proved APWPs for the grouped data, nor have
containing correlation errors to find an APWP is they revealed the precise reasons for the dis-
clear: arcuate segments are reduced in curvature crepancies between APWPs that were originally
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 147

on the same continent. What they have shown is
that modifying the data in plausible ways does not
significantly change the shape and position of the
APWPs.
Implications of the APWPs
APWPs for large continents for periods of tens
of millions of years appear to consist of arcuate
segments joined together by cusps (Irving, 1983;
Gordon et al., 1984). The steady motion may
reflect steady pulling of a continent by an at-
tached sinking oceanic plate (e.g., Harper, 1978)
or to changes in the principal axis of the geoid
(Chase and Sprowl, 1983; Le Pichon and Huchon,
1984).
Cusps are interpreted as representing important
periods of plate reorganization, the arcuate seg-
ments as periods of relatively steady motion. The
existence of cusps, or at least of sharp changes in
the trend of an APWP, is well known and prob-
ably reflects a discontinuity in the motion of the
continent concerned, probably due to plate
boundary changes such as its separation from or
collision with another continent.
When plotted on the conventional Pangea (Fig.
14a), known as Pangea A (Morel and Irving, 1981),
the APWPs of Gondwana and Laurussia show a
remarkably clear-cut result (Fig. 13): the two paths
are statistically indistinguishable on Pangea A for
190-210 Ma, but become statistically distinct at
about 220 Ma, turn abruptly at about 220 Ma for
Laurussia and about 260 Ma for Gondwanaland
and then become linear and subparallel back to
about 310 Ma. The fact that alternate points on
each APWP for a window of 20 Ma are of com-
pletely independent data is the clearest
paleomagnetic evidence for the reality of the ef-
fect.

PANGEA - A Africa fixed

20

ZO-

lb) %o I
I
220
I
240
1
260
r r
280
/
3

(4 2100 240'
Mean pole age Ma

Fig. 13. (a) The reference APWP for Laurasia and Gondwanaland in Africa-fixed co-ordinates on Pangea A. This figure shows the
gist of the “Pangea problem”: if the data are correct then the APWPs diverge going back in time. If the field was a dipole then
Laurasia moved with respect to Gondwanaland; if no movement took place the field had strong non-dipole components. (b) The rate
of change of pole position in mm yr -’ plotted against pole age in Ma. The Laurussian points are open squares; the South American
and African points are asterisks. Note the much greater amplitude of the South America and African pole change fit and the fact that
it peaks at a different age to the Laurussian changes. If the continents were joined together for a significant period of time then the
two plots should be much more similar. The dissimilarity may express the uncertainty and variability of the paleomagnetic data.
148
Fig. 14. Four Pangeas: (a) Pangea A; (b) Pangea A2; (c) Pangea B; (d) a C Pangea. Reproduced from (Livermore et al.. 1986)
The coincidence of the APWPs for 190-210 Ma
(Early Jurassic time) is exactly what is expected
for the dipole field model. The surprise, noted by
several workers, is the divergence for 220 Ma
(Late Triassic) time and older periods. The cusps
suggest that important changes took place in the
plate boundaries of Pangea sometime in the 220-
260 ma interval, i.e. in Triassic to Late Permian
time. The divergence in APWPs requires that at
least one plate boundary cut across Pangea itself.
A <i.SMITH AND R.A LIVERMORt
The lengths of the linear segments are identical
within the limits of error but differ in age at their
younger ends. The simplest interpretation of these
relationships is that Laurussia and Gondwanaland
were joined together during the period of linearity.
However, the rate of change of pole position in
millimetres per year is markedly different for each
linear segment (Fig. 13b). For Laurussia it ranges
from about 30 to 89 mm yr- ’ , with a mode near
40-45 mm yr-‘. For Africa and South America
PANOEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
the range is from 10 to 110 mm yr-‘, with no
clear modal value. If the two continents were
joined together, then the relatively uniform pole
spacing on the Laurussian APWP suggests it is the
more reliable APWP and that the transition age
from linearity to cusp is about 220 Ma. Relative to
the Laurussian APWP, poles of corresponding
position differ by as much as 15 Ma in age and
poles of corresponding age differ by as much as
lo* or so in position, though on average the
differences are smaller.
Tbe paleomagnetic data suggests that the sim-
plest model that would be consistent with the
APWPs and a dipole field is that an older Pangea
moved steadily northwards from about 310 to
about 220 Ma, broke into Laurussia and Gondwa-
na at about 220 Ma and then separated as the
central Atlantic started to open in M Jurassic time
(Klitgord and Schouten, 1986). From this view-
point Pangea A is nothing more than a snapshot
of a supercontinent in the process of breaking up.
The older Pangea should satisfy three general
criteria: bring about a statistically indistinguisha-
ble match of the Laurussian and Gondwana
APWPs for the pre-220 Ma interval; give rise to
plausible geological relationships on the recon-
struction; and be capable of evolving into Pangea
A without conflicting with geological evidence.
Pangeas
Pangea L3and the C Pangeas
Pangea B is an attempt to make a paleomagnetic
reconstruction at a specific time (280 Ma, Fig.
14c) or Early Permian time (Morel and Irving,
1981). The C Pangeas (Fig. 14d), named by Hal-
lam (1983), generalize this approach by proposing
paleomagnetic reconstructions for 240, 280 and
320 Ma (Smith et al., 1981). Pangea B and the C
Pangeas are essentially paieomagnetic snapshots
that use poles from the APWPs of Laurussia and
Gondwana to independently reposition the north-
ern and southern continents in their former latitu-
dinal orientations. One continent is then fixed and
the other is slid along paleolatitude lines until
both are as close together as possible.
149
Transform at 9W to iatltude lines
d
@
Transform sub-parallel to latitude Pnss
Fig. 15. An error of d is permitted by the error ranges of the
paleolatitudes on two continents. If the boundary between the
two continents is a transform fault in equatorial regions mak-
ing an angle B with the latitude lines, then d will correspond
to a horizontal displacement of d/sin 8. (This is a flat earth
approximation.)
Were the APWPs well dete~ned and the field
known to be a dipole, this method would give
excellent reconstructions. But the present uncer-
tainties in dating the APWPs suggest that any
such reassemblies are, at best, likely to contain
much larger errors than originally estimated, and,
at worst, misleading. The large lateral motions
implied by Pangea B would be suspect were it not
for the fact that the three C Pangeas give similar
offsets with three independent datasets (Smith et
al., 1981, maps 53-64).
The major problem in making paleomagnetic
snapshots is the error in the age of pole on the
APWP. Two other factors increase the uncertainty
in any snapshot reconstruction: firstly, the conti-
nents move through 40 o of latitude in the 310-190
Ma interval (Fig. 13); secondly, there is a small
angle between the trend of the boundary between
the north and south continents and the trend of
paleolatitude lines. Both factors will amplify small
errors in pole positions into large lateral displace-
ments with large uncert~nties (Fig. 15).
Pungea D
If the linear segments do represent the APWPs
on an older Pangea, that Pangea can be found
150 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

uniquely from paleomagnetic data without any

reference to geology, other than a decision on
which continents belong to Laurussia and which
to Gondwanaland. Figure 16 shows a visual fit of
the APWPs of Laurussia and Gondwanaland with
a pole at (- 10, 25) in south Zaire and a rotation
of 30 O. The class of Pangea obtained by fitting the
linear segments of the APWPs of Laurussia and
Gondwanaland together will be referred to as D
Pangeas. One is shown in Fig. 17. Like Pangea B
and the C Pangeas, the D Pangeas imply large
lateral motions in the transition from D to A. But
because they are based on fitting long segments of
the APWPs together, they cannot be so easily
dismissed as artefacts of the data.

Fig. 17. The reconstruction resulting from the visual fit of the
Pangea A2 APWPs, here named Pangea D. At the scale shown it does not
reveal any obvious overlaps that cannot be accounted for by
The D Pangeas are based entirely on paleo- errors in the APWPs or by subsequent deformation (e.g. in the
magnetic data without reference to the geology. northern Andes).

An alternative Pangea, proposed by Van der Voo

and French (1974) and named A2 (Fig. 14b) by

Morel and Irving (1981) brings the older parts of

PANGEA - D the APWPs into much better agreement (Fig. 18)
by applying an anticlockwise rotation to Laurussia
of some 20” about a pole in the western Sahara
relative to its position on Pangea A (Table 3, p.
159). The pole is given as (27, -60) in North
American coordinates after Africa has been rotated
O0 to North America by the Bullard et al. (1965)
rotation. Its position on present-day Africa is
(19.3, - 0.7). A2 (Fig. 19a) was made by visual
trial-and-error constrained by no overlap between
continental basement, by better alignment of fold
belts and a better alignment of paleomagnetic
poles, with the geology assuming a predominant
O0
role (R. Van der Voo, pers. commun., 1985).
Van der Voo et al. (1984) were unable to dis-
criminate between Pangea A2 and B on paleo-
magnetic grounds alone, but considered that the
geological evidence favoured Pangea A2.
Eur + Nam
Clearly, because of the errors involved, there
will be a range of A2 Pangeas compatible with the
0 data, rather than a unique A2 reconstruction. The
A2 Pangeas can be defined as those Pangeas that
240°
Fig. 16. A visual fit of the APWPs obtained interactively. The bring the Permo-Triassic APWPs of Laurussia and
fit is better than A or A2. The Euler rotation is ( - 10,25,30). Gondwanaland into better agreement with rela-
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 151

PANGEA - A2 The most recent analysis of western Pangea

(Pindell, 1985) does not account for the dif-
-I
ferences in the APWPs. It modifies Klitgord and
Schouten’s (1986) reassembly of North America
and Africa by removing the extension that has
\
taken place on the continental margins prior to
/6 0* ocean-floor spreading. The fit is tightened by
applying a correction of (26.7, - 63.4, - 2.5) to
Africa in its reassembled position in a North
American coordinate frame (Pindell, 1985, p. 30,
footnote c to table 1).
In the next few sections we discuss in detail
\
only Pangea A2 (including Walper’s A2) and Pan-
gea D. Pangea A2 is a judicious compromise be-
_.-3’OQ
tween the geology and paleomagnetic data; Pan-
gea D is entirely p~eoma~etic. As can be seen
from Fig. 18, provided allowance is made for the
uncertainties in the ages, the older linear segments
of the two curves are statistically indistinguishable
IEur + Nam I on Pangea A2 in the sense of having overlapping
A,, circles, though the circles overlap much more
0
-0
on D. Why are the overlaps of the APWPs on A2
240°
Fig. 18. The reference APWP of Laurasia and Gondwanaland
plotted on Pangea A2 in Africa-fixed co-ordinates. If ages are
disregarded, then the two paths are statistically indistinguisha-
ble. The ages do not match along the lengths of the paths but
suggest divergence of the paths on A2 in Late Triassic time.

tively small displacements between the two conti-

nents.
For example, Walper et al. (1979) suggested
that an even better fit between the southwestern
end of the Marathon-Ouachita foldbelt in the
southern United States and the Paleozoic foldbelt
of the Venezuelan Andes could be obtained by a
small change to A2. They proposed a small 3” W
shift of Laurussia relative to Gondwanaland to
attain a better alignment (Fig. 19b). We estimate
the pole for the modification proposed by Walper
et al. (1979) to be about (11, 3) in Africa-fixed
co-ordinates. We shall refer to this as the Walper
Fig. 19. (a) North America rotated to South America about the
A2 Pangea fit, or Walper fit. An important prop-
A2 pole. The rotation of 20 o is the maximum allowed geologi-
erty of Walper’s A2 is that it can accommodate caliy. (b) As for (a), but using Walper’s modification of A2. It
parts of central America between Florida and produces a better alignment of the erogenic belts in North and
South America, whereas A2 cannot. South America.
152
and D so similar when the reconstructions are
themselves so different? To answer this question
we need to examine the way in which A2 or D
could evolve into A.
A Pangea Transform Zone (PTZ)
Age and sense of movement on the PTZ
In Middle Jurassic time North America and
Northwest Africa were joined together. Going back
in time, there is no evidence for any Permo-Tri-
assic ocean between North America and North-
west Africa. The youngest compressional activity
is Early Permian in age, representing the final
stages in the evolution of the Appalachian moun-
tain belt and its mirror image in West Africa, the
Mauretanides. The ocean-floor between North
America and Africa started to spread in Middle
Jurassic time (Klitgord and Schouten, 1986) and
none of it has yet been destroyed. Therefore dur-
ing the entire Late Permian (and probably Late
Carboniferous} to Early Jurassic interval there
must have been continental crust between North
America and West Africa. This crust could have
been undergoing extension, but did not stretch
sufficiently to form ocean-floor. It certainly did
not experience any compression in the Late Perm-
ian to Middle Jurassic interval.
Thus if the APWPs are more or less correct and
the dipole field model is accepted, then the evolu-
tion of A2 (or D) to A took place along dextral
(right-lateral) Triassic to Early Jurassic in-
tracontinental faults. If the movements were of the
order of a few hundred kilometres, then the faults
could have been transtensional, i.e. strike-slip
faulting with significant extensional components.
If the movements were much larger, then the
faults were essentially transform in nature. We use
the term transform in a general sense to mean a
conservative plate boundary, rather than a plate
margin that that joined two ocean ridge segments
together. This zone of large-scale faulting will be
referred to as the Pangea Transform Zone, or
PTZ. Such a zone has not been observed, but if
the APWPs are approximately correct and the
Permo-Triassic geomagnetic field was dipolar, its
existence is inescapable.
A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE
Late Carbonifero~ stroke-slip fauitin~
Although too old to account for the motion, it
is worth noting an important period of Late
Paleozoic dextral faulting between Laurussia and
Gondwana, from the Appalachians (Gates et al.,
1986, fig. 1) through the Variscan chain of central
Europe to the Urals (Arthaud and Matte, 1977,
fig. 9, p. 1317). The age of this faulting is mostly
Late Carboniferous. In the southern Appalachians
some sy~nematic plutons have been dated at
313-292 Ma (mid-Late Carboniferous) by Rb-Sr
methods, and post-kinematic plutons at about 285
Ma (near the Carboniferous/ Permian boundary).
The synkinematic ages overlap the period for
which the older APWPs have been determined
(310-300 Ma). The poles for 310 and 300 Ma may
reflect a period when Laurussia and Gondwana
were in relative motion, though this is not ap-
parent from the APWPs themselves. But the ob-
served displacements on most of the strike-slip
faults are of the order of tens, rather than
hundreds, of kilometres required by the A2 (or D)
to A transition (Gates et al., 1986).
An exception is the Brevard Zone in the south-
em Appalachians, interpreted as a large right-
lateral strike-slip zone with a displacement of at
least 210 km (Reed and Bryant, 1964). The age of
the displacement was originally constrained only
to Late Paleozoic or Early Triassic time (Reed and
Bryant, 1964), but Gates et al. (1986) depict it as a
Late Carboniferous fault.
Unfortunately, although movement on these
Late Carboniferous faults has the correct sense
and Brevard Zone displacement approaches that
required, they are too old. They cannot account
for the Pangea transition.
Permian to Early Jurassic faulting
Sedimentary basins adjacent to the proposed
PTZ in eastern North America, Northwest Africa
and Southwest Europe are of Late Carbo~ferous
to Early Permian or Late Triassic to Early Jurassic
age (Van Houten, 1976, p. 674; 1977; Lancelot,
1980) (Fig. 20).
The Late Carboniferous to Early Permian basins
were small, numerous, non-marine, intramontane
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
Fig. 20. Pangea A showing exposed and buried Triassic
with teeth); and Jurassic and younger sediments (thin line with dotted
Transform Zone (PTZ) exists, it could he below areas of Jurassic
Jurassic and later time; it must avoid areas of Permian
basins developed on continental crust thickened
by the Variscan orogeny (Van Houten, 1976). Some
are intruded by granite that may range into Perm-
ian time, but there is no evidence in Permian time
for significant horizontal tectonic movement-in
excess of say 100 km-associated with the evolu-
tion of these basins.
There are no significant onshore or offshore
basins in the mid-Permian to Early Triassic inter-
val. It was a tectonically stable interval. Together
with the Early Permian evidence, we would expect
the APWPs to be identical in this interval-about
280-240 Ma.
Thus although the breakup and initial motion
of an older Pangea could have started in Early
Permian time, significant motion did not begin
until the Late Triassic basins began to form. With
the exception of one Middle Triassic basin in the
Grand Banks region, the earliest faulting was of
early Carnian (earliest Late Triassic) age (Van
Houten, 1977, p. 94), or about 230 Ma old. Tri-
assic basin development presumably coincided
with the transition from Pangea A2 (or D) to A,
i.e. with cusps in the APWPs, estimated at 220 Ma
on the Laurussian APWP and about 260 Ma on
the Gondwana APWP.
153
basins (black), the edge of Paleozoic erogenic deformation (thick black line
ornament). Compiled from miscellaneous sources. If a Pangea
and younger rocks; it could be within areas that were deformed in
and older rocks that have not been deformed since Permian time.
Most of the Triassic basins are purely exten-
sional, and appear to be sited on pre-existing Late
Paleozoic faults and basins (Swanson, 1986).
Small-scale, E-trending right-lateral strike-slip
Late Triassic faulting has been observed in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, forming a belt that can
be traced to the continental margin (Van Houten,
1977, p. 91). Other E-trending structural discor-
dances, which may also reflect dextral faulting, are
known in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Similar
E-trending structures are known from northwest
Morocco (Sichler et al., 1980, p. 1548). The esti-
mated Mesozoic displacement on all these E-
trending structures is less than 100 km.
Swanson (1982) has also examined the geologi-
cal implications of the misfit between the APWS.
He postulates a dextral PTZ at about 240-230
Ma, followed by a much smaller sinistral move-
ment at about 215-190 Ma (Swanson, 1982, p.
317, fig. l), but how the required displacement is
accommodated is not clear.
In short, while the beginning of extensional
basin formation is in reasonable agreement with
the ages of the cusps in the APWP curves, and
with the sense of motion on Triassic to Early
Jurassic strike-slip faults, there is no outcrop evi-
154
dence whatsoever for large-scale transform fault-
ing in any part of the extensional zone between
eastern North America and Northwest Africa.
Possible PTZ analogues
If the PTZ is a reality, then purely extensional
basins formed in a zone parallel to and no more
than 500 km distant from a transform zone. If
they were contemporaneous, such a tectonic set-
ting would be the extensional analogue of the
partitioning of slip at some subduction zones into
strike-slip and dip-slip components.
Present-day examples of contemporaneous
transform motion and extensional faulting include
the San Andreas Fault and Basin-and-Range prov-
ince of the western United States. However, these
motion are probably related to ridge collision off
the western coast of the United States. During
Triassic time the area concerned was a continuous
continent with no evidence anywhere for adjacent
ocean-floor or contemporaneous subduction.
It is highly unlikely that the initial opening of
the Atlantic was interrupted by transform faulting
which then reverted to older extensional faulting
along the same trend as opening of the Atlantic. It
is far more likely that the initial opening of the
Atlantic was kinematically and dynamically con-
tinuous with Late Triassic to Early Jurassic exten-
sional faulting, in turn preceded by transform
faulting. Thus the PTZ is assumed to have been
active at the beginning of APWP cusp formation
(260-220 Ma) and to have undergone a transition
to extension somewhat later.
In our view the Great Glen Fault of northwest
Scotland may be a close analogue of the PTZ.
This is an intracontinental transform fault prob-
ably formed in Early Devonian time shortly after
continental collision had taken place. It has a
small radius of curvature-and may continue from
Scotland to the latitude of Svalbard-a distance
of at least 2000 km, though the fault zone itself is
only several few hundred metres wide. Motion is
probably of the order of several tens rather than
hundreds of kilometres. The fault is truncated by
the new Atlantic margins at a range of angles, but
at no place does the margin coincide with the
fault: it was not exploited during Atlantic open-
A.G. SMITH AND R A. LIVERMORE
ing. Early Devonian continental basins, probably
fault-bounded and of extensional origin lie ad-
jacent to and sub-parallel to the Great Glen Fault
(Rogers et al., 1989).
If analogous, we would expect the PTZ to have
similar properties: to have a relatively narrow
surface trace and to predate basin formation. A
relatively narrow PTZ hidden under younger sedi-
ments may more easily account for the required
displacement than “a wide arcuate transform sys-
tem” as envisaged by Swanson (1982).
General location of the PTZ
Geologically, the PTZ must avoid areas of un-
faulted Triassic to Early Jurassic rocks or of older
rocks that have not been faulted since Permian
time. It can be hidden under Middle Jurassic or
younger rocks; it could also be masked in areas of
Middle Jurassic or later deformation (Fig. 20).
The PTZ between Africa and North America
must for the most part be buried under the coastal
plain sediments of one or both continents or off-
shore on their continental margins. Parts of the
North American and African margins could in-
clude segments which were originally part of the
PTZ and developed into mid-Jurassic extensional
plate margins during the opening of the Atlantic.
PTZ in Florida
At the southwestern end of the U.S. Atlantic
margin, the pre-Cretaceous geology is largely con-
cealed beneath the coastal plain sediments of
Florida and the Gulf Coast region. An important
constraint on how the PTZ passes through Florida
is provided by a prominent continuous geophysi-
cal feature in South Georgia, the Brunswick mag-
netic anomaly (BMA), (Fig. 21a). The rocks on
opposite sides of the BMA have different Late
Paleozoic facies, structural trends and geophysical
properties which suggest the anomaly marks a
Late Paleozoic suture (Daniels et al., 1983, p. 18).
However, the similarity in trend and wave-
length of this anomaly to the East Coast Magnetic
Anomaly (ECMA), itself widely regarded as the
present-day ocean/continent boundary (e.g., Grow
et al., 1979; Klitgord and Behrendt, 1979) has led
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME

Fig. 21. (a) Continental magnetic anomalies on Pangea A. BMA = Brunswick magnetic anomaly; ECMA = Past Coast Magnetic
anomaly; WACMA = West African continental magnetic anomaly. Other smaller anomalies are also shown. Anomalies on North
America are stippled; those on Africa are black. Both sets of anomalies are coincident or sub-parallel on Pangea A. (b). Continental
anomalies on Pangea A2. The anomalies crosscut one another. If the anomalies are Paleozoic sutures, PTZs are unlikely to pass south
of Florida. Thus A2 as a single rotation about (19, - 1) is an improbable reconstruction, whereas Walper’s A2 and D are possible
reassemblies.

other workers to interpret the BMA anomaly as
related to Mesozoic extension (Horton et al., 1984;
Popenoe and Zietz 1977). Chowns and Williams
(1983, p. L37) suggest that both hypotheses could
be true in part, with the Mesozoic extension hav-
ing taken place on the site of a former Paleozoic
suture. Recent COCORP reflection profiles sug-
gest that the BMA lies about 90 km north of the
depositional axis of the Triassic-Early Jurassic
south Georgia basin (Nelson et al., 1985a, b),
implying that here, at least, the anomaly may
coincide with a part of the suture which has not
been subsequently extended. A slightly different
view is given by Tauvers and Muehlberger (1987,
fig. 4) in which a Late Paleozoic (Alleghanian)
suture is placed near the BMA, but the BMA itself
is interpreted as an earlier Gondwana/Laurussian
suture. If the BMA is a Paleozoic suture then the
PTZ must pass to the northwest or southeast of it.
A similar magnetic anomaly, the West African
coastal anomaly (WACMA), marks the ocean/
continent boundary of the West African continen-
tal margin and, near Dakar, turns abruptly west
out into the Atlantic. On Pangea A the the ECMA
and WACMA anomalies coincide for much of
their length and have been interpreted as a
Hercynian, i.e. a Late Paleozoic, suture (Roussel
and Liger, 1983; Nelson et al., 1985a, b), which
cuts inland at a high angle at about latitude 31“ N
on the North American margin (Fig. 21a).
If the BMA does join WACMA, and if both
represent a formerly continuous Late Paleozoic
suture, the PTZ cannot pass southeast of Florida.
The offsets of the WACMA anomaly relative to
156 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. l.IVF:RMORfr

the BMA and ECMA that are produced by a PTZ

south of Florida are shown on Pangea A2 (Fig.
21b). If the PTZ passes northwest of Florida the
BMA should have an abrupt west termination
where it is cut by the PTZ, which will mark the
northern route of the PTZ through Florida. The
BMA does appear to stop in the west in some
inte~retations of the magnetic anomalies, though
its te~nation is placed at different localities (cf.
Daniels et al., 1983, fig. 13, p_ K19, and Klitgord
et al., 1983, fig. 2, p. P4). Other interpretations
(e.g.. Tamers and Mue~berger 1987, fig. 4) sug-
gest it turns southwest and continues to the Gulf
Coast.
Thus a PTZ route northwest of Florida seems
much more likely than does a southeastern route.
The route most probably lies in southern Georgia,
just southeast of the fall line marking the conti-
nentward extent of the coastal plain sediments.
All PTZs would, if continued west of Florida,
cut the continental edge of part of South America
that has been geologically stable since Late
Paleozoic time. All PTZs must therefore trend
more westerly as they approach South America
and become transtensional or extensional plate
margins. They cannot turn to the east because that
would imply a plate margin between Africa and
South America at this time. for which there is no
evidence. All PTZs must therefore have created a
new continental margin, or zone of extension,
somewhere between the present northern edge of
South America and the Florida/Gulf Coast re-
gion.
The NE-trending Triassic grabens of the coastal
plain region pass southwest into inferred NW-
trending grabens along the edge of the Gulf region

aapproxImate northern limit of w TrfasaIc Graban trend

:
present “Ctceantc” crust

* edg6 of Cambrian - Grdovklan *;_..J edge of coastal plain deposits

/ carbonate bank

Fig. 22. Major features of Gulf Coast region. The Triassic grabens and salt distribution both suggest that any PTZ would have run
west of the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly, rather than east of it. No part of the area north and west of the Late Paleozoic erogenic
belts can overlap another continent in a Late Paleozoic reconstruction.
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 157

(Fig. 22) (Kupfer, 1974). The Jurassic Louann salt, PTZ east of Iberia
presumably related to initial extension, may range
into Early Jurassic and possibly Triassic time. It In the Mediterranean region A2 and Walper
forms the Northern Gulf salt basin in the Gulf of models require that the PTZs become transpres-
Mexico but does not flank western Florida. Thus sive along the north margin of Africa or that they
the distribution, trend and age of the grabens, and meet a triple junction where new plate margins
possibly the salt, are compatible with a PTZ north accommodate the required motions (Fig. 23). One
of Florida. The absence of recorded Triassic to of the characteristic features of the Triassic geol-
Early Jurassic extension in the Gulf region south- ogy of this and adjacent regions is marked exten-
west of Florida is also evidence against the south- sion (Bernoulli and Jenkyns, 1974). Though areas
ern route, though Pindell (1985, fig. 8) shows a such as western Greece and Italy, which were
schematic Late Triassic E-trending ridge and N- probably part of a continuous continental area in
trending transform system developing between the Permian to Early Triassic time (Smith, 1971; De-
Florida Straits and Florida proper. wey et al., 1973) have been affected by Cenozoic
It is interesting to note that the Bogota Basin of deformation, the geology is sufficiently clear to
Colombia also contains Jurassic salt (Burgl, 1967). rule out any possibility of Triassic compression
(e.g., IGSR/IFP, 1966; British Petroleum Co.,
Ltd., 1971; Carmignani, Giglia and Kligfield,
1978).
PTZ in Iberia
The petrology of the Triassic Diabase-Horn-
stein Formation in the internal zones of the Hel-
The pre-Jurassic position of Iberia in Pangea A lenides in Greece and the Dinarides in Yugoslavia,
is still quite uncertain-compare Bullard et al does suggest contemporaneous subduction (Pamic,
(1965) with Haworth (1979) or Olivet et al. (1984) 1984) (Fig. 23). Contemporaneous compressive
or Masson and Miles (1984). In most reconstruc- structures are not known, possibly because the
tions there is not enough space to accommodate igneous rocks represent a back-arc environment
Iberia between Africa and Europe. The main rea- and any compressive structures lie to the northeast
son for this may well be the North Atlantic fit; (in present-day co-ordinates) of the Hellenides
certainly the magnetic anomaly data between and Dinarides. The coexistence of Triassic exten-
Greenland, Europe and North America produce sion to the east of Iberia and probable subduction
mutually inconsistent results (Olivet et al,, 1982; further east must be included in any PTZ model.
Vink, 1982), though the inconsistencies are re- How this might be achieved requires detailed dis-
duced in recent work (Srivastava and Tapscott, cussion of a Mediterranean reconstruction, which
1986). is not attempted here.
Despite the uncertainty in its position, Iberia
provides a useful constraint at the east end of the PTZ poles and displacements
PTZ: there is no evidence for a large Triassic to
Early Jurassic fault through Iberia itself. The PTZ Four types of PTZ
must therefore pass either north through the
Pyrenees or south through the Betic-Rif area, both The geometric limits posed by the BMA and
zones of younger Mesozoic and Cenozoic defor- Iberia give rise to four possible PTZs, which we
mation (Fig. 20). shall refer to as PTZl-4. PTZl runs north of
From his study of sedimentary basins, Van Iberia and west of the Brunswick anomaly; PTZ2
Houten (1976, p. 681) favoured a Late Paleozoic runs south of Iberia and east of the Brunswick
link between southern Iberia and Morocco. This anomaly; PTZ3 lies south of Iberia and west of
would preclude a large (> few hundred kilo- the Brunswick anomaly; PTZ4 passes north of
metres) Triassic to Early Jurassic PTZ between Iberia and east of the Brunswick anomaly. The
Iberia and Africa. PTZ to be associated with each class of Pangea is
158 A.<;. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

MA (= Brunswick

Fig. 23. (a) Pangea Transform Zones and (b) Triassic plate margins within Pangea. The PTZ appears to lie E of the BMA or W of the
BMA; it appears to pass to the N or to the S of Iberia. Examples of the four PTZ types are shown. The hypothetical PTZs cannot cut
South America. They cannot turn southeast because Africa and South America are parts of a single plate in Permo-Triassic time.
They must therefore turn west, implying a Triassic extensional margin between North and South America. To the east the PIZs pass
to the north or south of Iberia. Their trend must be compatible with the extension in the west Alpine-Mediterranean region and with
talc-alkaline (?) volcanics in present-day Yugoslavia and Greece. Triassic basins mark areas of extension. Their presence in the
present-day north Gulf region suggests that any PTZs passed north of the Florida peninsula, rather than south of it.
PANGFiA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 159

readily found by drawing circles centred on a TABLE 2

representative Euler pole and noting which circles Points used to define Pangea Transform Zones
best correspond to the possible PTZs. The B, C Present-day used for
and D Pangeas correspond to PTZl; A2 to PTZ2; coordinates
Walper’s A2 to PTZ3; there are no Pangeas corre- ( olat) ( o long)
sponding to PTZ4.
Flemish Cap/
Nova Scotia 44.5 -55 All PTZs
Representative PTZ poles West end Brunswick
Magnetic Anomaly 31.7 -83 PTZl, PTz3
The four types of PTZ discussed above will East end Brunswick
each have a range of Euler poles that apply to Magnetic Anomaly 33 -77 PTZZ, PTz4
West end Pyrenees 43 3 PTZl, FIX4
them. Rather than discussing these ranges, each of
North Africa 37 2.5 PTZ2, PTz3
which will vary according to the reconstruction
used-because’ Iberia, say, will be in a different
position on the reconstructions relative to, say,
North America-we calculate a specific pole by ously. A pole is calculated for the possible combi-
requiring each PTZ to pass through three geologi- nations of points and its location is taken as
cally selected points (Table 2) on the reconstruc- representative of its PTZ type (Table 3).
tion given by the rotations in Table 1. In addition to these tectonically controlled
The point (44.5, - 55), described as Flemish PTZs, the paleomagnetic Euler poles for the Pan-
Cap/Nova Scotia in Table 2, is to some extent an gea A2 to A and D to A transitions, are also poles
arbitrary choice. Inspection of the submarine mor- for PTZs, because the geology requires the transi-
phology off Nova Scotia suggests that it could tion to be largely transform motion. It is interest-
plausibly represent a transform fault along which ing to note how close these paleomagnetic (D) or
the Atlantic margin has subsequently formed. The paleomagnetic/ tectonic (A2, Walper) Euler poles
Flemish Cap would represent a section of the are to the geometric/ tectonic poles (Table 3).
margin where the transfo~ had not been broken. The differences in the possible PTZs on a tight
The point where the Flemish Cap joins the Nova North American to Africa fit such as that of
Scotia margin is selected as a point on all PTZs. Bullard et al. (1965) or Klitgord and Schouten
The four other points have been mentioned previ- (1986) and the much looser Liassic (Early Jurassic)

TABLE 3
Geometric/tectonic and paleomagnetic/tectonic PTZ poles

Type Location Pole How determined

( ’ lat) ( o long)
PTzl N Iberia; W BMA -5 27 Geometric/tectonic (Table 2)
-6 19 Paleomagnetic (Pangea-D)

PTz2 S Iberia; E BMA 19 2 Geometric/tectonic cable 2)

19 -1 Paleomagnetic/tectonic (A2)

PTz3 S Iberia; W BMA 13 3 Geometric/tectonic (Table 2)

11 3 Paleomagnetic/tectonic
(Walper A2)

PTz4 N Iberia; E BMA 6 21 Geometric/tectonic (Table 2)

- No paleomagnetic/tectonic
example
160 A G. SMITH AND R A. LIVERMORE

fit of Olivet et al. (1984) are not significant for the

general discussion, but would be important for
any detailed analysis of the area, which will not be
attempted here.

The A2 and D Pangeas compared

We can now examine the geometric causes for

the large differences between the A2 and D Pan-
geas. We discuss first the Euler rotations that are
broadly in agreement with the estimated Euler
poles for A2 and D and bring the APWPs into
alignment. There is an interesting relationship be-
tween the rotations and the poles for A2 and D i
which explains why two such radically different i.._.._..
Pangeas can be derived from the same
paleomagnetic dataset.
Because the A2 to A Euler poles (A2 = 19, - 1; Fig. 24. A2 and D are the A2 and D Euler poles in Africa-fixed

Walper’s A2 = 11, 3) lie about 80” from the mid- coordinates. L.A and GA are the Laurasian and Gondwanan
reference APWPs on Pangea A in Africa-fixed coordinates.
point of each APWP, the rotation needed to bring
LA2 and LD are the Laurussian APWP rotated about the A2
the APWPs into rough agreement is only 20” and D poles respectively into their positions on A2 and D.
(Fig. 24). However, the A2 to A poles lies close to Both give reasonable fits to the paleomagnetic data (Figs. 16
the A2 PTZ, which means that a given rotation and 18). The circles drawn about the A2 and D poles show
causes a relatively small displacement on the A2 possible PTZs. Because A2 is farther from LA, a given rotation
moves LA much more than the same rotation would move LA
PI-Z.
about D. But A2 is closer to its PTZ than is D, thus a given
By contrast, the D to A poles (e.g., -6, 19) lie
rotation about A2 causes a smaller displacement about A2
about 45 ’ from the mid-point of each APWP, and than about D. This lever effect accounts for the radically
require a rotation of 30” to bring the APWPs different A2 and D reconstructions.
together. At the same time the Euler pole is more
distant from the D PTZ and a given rotation
causes a larger displacement on a D PTZ than modated on them. The A2 Pangeas improve the fit
does the same rotation on the A2 PIZ. Thus the of the APWPs while simultaneously making better
D Pangeas require a much larger displacement matches of the assumed geological relationships.
along the D PTZ, partly due to the larger rotation The principle of least astonishment clearly favours
required and partly the larger angular distance the A2 Pangeas, but do geological arguments al-
involved. low one to distinguish A2 from D?
The angle subtended by an A2 transform at its
pole-about 120 o - would be one of the highest Geological arguments for Pangea A
known, though this may not be a reason for reject-
ing it. The displacement is about 700 km at an The reevaluation of the paleomagnetic data,
average rate of 14 mm yr-‘. The D Pangeas urged by Hallam (1983) has provided the impetus
require minimum displacements of 2500 km. The for this review. Hallam (1983) argued that geologi-
rate of movement would be about 50 mm yr-’ or cal evidence favoured Pangea A as opposed to
about the same as on the San Andreas Fault Pangea B or the C Pangeas. We have argued that
today. the B and C Pangeas are essentially snapshots
The D Pangeas are made by fitting the APWPs based on data with significant errors and should
together as well as possible. It is assumed that the be rejected. However, because the D Pangeas re-
resulting geological relationships can be accom- quire similar displacements to B and C, several of
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
the points Hallam raised are relevant to the D
Pangeas, though a few are not. He did not specifi-
cally discuss Pangea A2 though he clearly re-
garded it as a minor modification of the conven-
tional Pangea (Hallam, p. 499).
His nine points are referred to below using his
numbering scheme prefaced by “H”. We present
his points one by one, following each with a
comment in parentheses.
Fauna1 evidence
Where the continental pieces of Central
America would have been on the D Pangeas is
uncertain, but they are most likely to have lain
west of southern North America near northern
South America. Such a paleogeography would
make (Hl, H4-6) no longer relevant:
(Hl) Marine Late Carboniferous and Permian
of the northern Andes are very similar to central
America and southern United States. (To be ex-
pected on D Pangeas).
(H4) Strong resemblances of Permian marine
invertebrates between northern Andes and central
America-southern U.S.A. (To be expected on D
Pangeas.)
(H5) “Pacific” and “Appalachian” elements
occur in late Paleozoic faunas of western South
America. (To be expected on D Pangeas.)
(H6) Late Paleozoic terrestrial floras of North-
west Africa match European rather than the
central Asian floras. (On D Pangeas Northwest
Africa is opposite Europe rather than central Asia.)
Stratigraphic/structural similarities
(H2) Strong similarities in Late Paleozoic facies
and structures between Morocco and Iberia. (PTZ
on D Pangeas passes north and west of Iberia,
rather than separating Iberia from Africa.)
(H3) Strong Paleozoic similarities between
Nova Scotia and Morocco, and between south-
eastern U.S.A. and Northwest Africa. The first
similarity cited is between the Early Paleozoic
Meguma Group of Nova Scotia and a similar
complex in the Moroccan Atlas (Schenk, 1980). (It
is possible to envisage the two being lateral equiv-
alents on the D Pangeas.) The second similarity
161
requires an African source for the non-metamor-
phic Lower Paleozoic sub-surface deposits of
Florida. (Since Florida is tucked in between South
America and Africa, no problem arises on the D
Pangeas).
Structural arguments
(H7) Evidence for taphrogeny, i.e. vertical mo-
tions, rather than strike-slip motion in the critical
Late Permian-Early Triassic time interval. (The
evidence suggests that the critical transition took
place in Late Triassic to Early Jurassic time, but
the criticism is still relevant and has been dis-
cussed above).
(H8) The implausibly high rates of shear along
the PTZ and the irregularity of the junction be-
tween them. (The rates of shear are comparable
with the San Andreas Fault, though the total
displacement is several times larger. The PTZ of
the D Pangea is a circular arc and is not irregular.)
(H9) Structural models involving strike-slip
movement, and collision to produce Mauretan-
ides-Appalachians are inconsistent with the D
Pangeas. (The D to A transition may have little
bearing on any strike-slip models of older oro-
genie belts or on how the Mauretanide-Appa-
lachian belt formed. However, the postulated
right-lateral Late Devonian/ Carboniferous (?)
shear depicted by Le Fort (1983, fig. 10, p. 15) is
in the same sense as the PTZ and has a similar
trace. The Mauretanides could have originated by
collision between Africa and Newfoundland and
Brittany; the southern Appalachians by the colli-
sion of southeast U.S.A. with northwest South
America. The southern Appalachians could then
have been brought opposite Florida and the
southern Mauretanides by movement on the PTZ).
Fusiline distribution
Ross (1979) has reviewed the relative merits of
Pangea A and B in accounting for the distribution
of Early Permian fusulines and of elastic wedges
associated with presumed continental collisions in
the Ouachita-Marathon fold belt and similar rocks
in Colombia and Venezuela. He concluded that
Pangea B required long narrow seas within Pangea
162 A.<;. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

to account for the fusuline dist~butions whereas

COLLECTOR = BRUNSWICK ?
.4 did not. Similarly A unites elastic wedges with
their likely source areas, whereas 3 does not. Ross’
figures show that the same arguments apply to A2
compared with D, that is, while there is no com-
pelling evidence favouring A2 against D, on bal-
ance A2 is preferable.

Continental magnetic anomalies

Another argument advanced against the large

displacements required by Pangea D (and Pangea
B and the C Pangeas) is the apparent absence of
any correlations between geological features on
opposite sides of the assumed boundary between
Gondwanaland and Laurussia. In earlier Paleozoic
time fauna1 and facies si~a~ties suggest that
Southeast Florida was part of Gondwanaland
(Cramer, 1971; Pojeta, Jiri and Berdan, 1976;
W~ttington and Hughes, 1972), i.e. the Gondwa-
naf Laurussian suture lay in southern Georgia
north of the Florida peninsula. The precise posi-
Fig. 25. The PTZ is a possible Pangea Transform Zone at the
tion of this suture is not known, but as discussed continental margin of Nova Scotia and Grand Banks and just
below, it has been identified as the 3MA. The north of the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly in Florida. The two
BMA appears to be truncated to the west, if its areas have been broken along this hypothetical line and joined
continuation could be located this would provide so as to match the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly and the
Collector Anomaly as well as possible. Positive magnetic highs
excellent evidence for the reality of a mobile Pan-
are shown in black. The geology does not appear to be in
gea. conflict with this reconstruction: M. the Meguma terrane has
To find a correlative of this suture on Pangea been interpreted as a continental rise deposit of Gondwana;
D, we would need to look some 2500 km along 7’)‘s (the Talahassee/Suwanee terrane) is regarded as a
strike, i.e. in the Maritime Provinces in Canada. Gondwana shelf sequence; B = Brunswick terrane; A = Avalon
There is in fact a prominent linear positive mag- terrane.

netic anomaly off Nova Scotia known as the Col-

lector anomaly, so called because all the magnetic
anomalies south from Newfoundland and the
northern Grand Banks are tributary to it
(Haworth, 1975).
Like the BMA, the Collector anomaly has been
proposed as a Late Paleozoic suture separating the
Meguma zone to the south in Nova Scotia from
the Avalon zone to the north (Williams and
Hatcher, 1983, pp. 36-37). The Meguma zone
includes Cambro-Ordovician rocks interpreted as
part of a continental rise prism believed to have
been derived from North Africa and resembling
some Moroccan sequences (Schenk, 1971, 1980).
Thus the Meguma sequence can be regarded as a
continental rise prism of part of Gondwanaland
and might in Early Paleozoic time have lain off-
shore of the Florida platform.
The Avalon sequence is a Late Precambrian to
Cambrian volcanic and sediments sequence
whose metamorphic equivalents are believed to
occur in Georgia, north of the BMA (Williams
and Hatcher, 1983, p. 42). It is therefore tempting
to correlate the Collector with the BMA, or, more
strictly, to correlate the positive anomalies south
of the BMA with the positive Collector anomaly
(Fig. 25). The correlation is not strong because the
continuous negative BMA north of the discontinu-
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 163

ous positive anomalies is not apparent in the

signature of the Collector anomaly.
If the Collector anomaly is the continuation of
the BMA, it should not continue across the Grand
Banks. Whether it does so or not is unclear
(Haworth and LeFort, 1979, figs. 4 and 4b, p.
557). It is certainly much less distinct on the
Grand Banks and may very well terminate on the
north edge of the Banks (Haworth and LeFort,
fig. 8; Haworth, 1979). If the BMA and Collector
anomaly were once continuous then the Euler
rotation about a Pangea D Euler pole of (- 6, 19)
needed to align them is 45 *, rather than the 30 o
obtained by fitting together the APWPs (Fig. 17).
The paleomagnetic data do not support such a
large rotation (Fig. 24).
Thus, despite their apparent attraction as corre-
lation markers, the Collector and Brunswick
anomalies are unlikely to have been cont~uous at
any time in the 310-190 Ma interval, though they Fig. 26. Late Paleozoic tectonic setting of northwest South
America. Eu = “eugeosyncline”, i.e. a thick Middie-Upper
might represent a suture that was continuous dur-
Paleozoic sequence including significant volcanics; h&o
ing an earlier period and had been broken by 310 = “miogeosyncline”, i.e. a thick Middle-Upper Paleozoic se-
Ma. quence Iacking si~fi~nt volcanics. It passes east into a
correlative shelf sequence. Black spots are outcrop areas of
Brunswick and West African anomalies Middle-Upper Paleozoic rocks. Thick line = eastern limit of
Late Paleozoic oropny. Provided there are no significant
strike-slip faults between the shelf and the erogenic belt, any
The pre-Jurassic position of Florida relative to
PTZ must he to the west of the erogenic belt and no part of
Africa is generally taken as similar to that of the area to the east can overlap any part of the stable North
Bullard et al. (1965). As noted above, such a fit American continent on a reconstruction.
aligns the B~ns~ck Magnetic Anomaly (BMA)
with a similarly-trending magnetic anomaly on the by A2 or D displacements, though, of course, this
West African continental margin near Dakar (Fig. smaller displacement is assumed to have taken
21a) (Jones 1987) and would be incompatible with place about a PTZ pole.
a large displacement on a PTZ passing south of
Florida, such as the A2 (Fig. 21b). The Paleozoic shelves of the Americas
In our view none of the above arguments con-
vincingly disprove the D Pangeas, though they do In Permo-Carboniferous time a stable shelf ex-
favour Walper’s A2. isted in parts of Colombia and Venezuela (Burg&
1967, fig. 3, pp. 433-434; Irving, 1975, fig. 4, p.
Semi-quantitative &o~straint~on the PTZ displace- 10) (Fig. 26). This passed west into a thicker
ment “miogeosynclinal” * sequence, in turn passing
laterally into a ‘“eugeosynclinal” * sequence
The previous section has been concerned with
general geological arguments for and against vari-
ous Pangeas. The geologically stable parts of South * A “~og~s~cli~e” is a “geosyncline” in which volcanism
is not associated with sedimentation; an “eugeosyncline” is
America and North America play an important a “geosyncline” in which volcanism is associated with elastic
role in quantitatively limiting in detail the possible sedimentation (R.L. Bodes and, J.A. Jackson, “Glossary of
PTZ displacement to much less than that required Geology”, A.G.I., 1980).
164 A.<> SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

metamorphosed in Late Paleozoic time. The meta- the area was still essentially one of tectonic stabil-
morphism probably reflects the collision of South ity. It passed south and east into the Marathon,
America with parts of North America or Central Ouachita and Appalachian erogenic belts (Fig.
America in Late Paleozoic time. 22). There is a close parallelism between the
In Early Paleozoic time a similarly stable southern edge of the Early Paleozoic carbonate
carbonate shelf existed on the southern edge of bank on the North American continent (Thomas
North America (Fig. 22). In Late Paleozoic time 1977); the estimated position of the present-day

N FDA / N IBA A2

Walper S FDA/N IBA

BES / Jn>3o (c) (d)

Fig. 27. All features are in Africa-fixed coordinates. The thick lines on all four diagrams are the positions of the eu-/miogeosynclinal
boundary of Fig. 26 moved to Africa by the Bullard et al. (1965) rotation ( = BES); and the MO pole of Rabinowitz and Labrecque
(1979) (= MO). The numbered thin lines are the successive positions of the ocean/continent boundary of Fig. 22 moved first to
Africa in its Pangea A position, then rotated about the appropriate PTZ pole. The numbers are the rotation angles in degrees. Thus
0 = position of boundary on Pangea A; 35, say, equals position with respect to Africa after a 35O anticlockwise rotation. (a) PIZI
( = Pangea D) through North Florida and North Iberia. (b) PTZ2 (= Pangea A2) through South Florida and South Iberia. (c) PTZ3
( = Walper’s modified A2) through North Florida and South Iberia. (d) PTZ4 through South Florida and North Iberia
PANGEe IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 165

ocean-continent boundary in the Gulf region
(Cebull and Shurbet, 1980); and the northern edge
of Late Paleozoic deformation (Ring, 1977, fig.
44).
No part of the contemporaneous stable shelves
of North America and South America can have
overlapped each other. In fact, it is likely that the
two were never closer than about 200 km, or the
width of narrower parts of the present-day colli-
sional Alpine-Himalayan chain, as in the Alps
themselves. Thus any Pangea reconstruction that
causes shelf overlap can be rejected, and those
that require the shelf edges to be much closer than
200 km are suspect.
The eu-/miogeosynclinal boundary of the Late
Paleozoic orogeny in South America (Fig. 26) and
the approximate northern limit of present “oce-
anic crust” in the Gulf region (Fig. 22) are taken
as lines which can touch, but could not overlap on
a Pangea reconstruction. Laurussia may then be
turned about the PTZ poles in Table 3 until these
two lines touch (Figs. 27a-d). On the BES fit the
permitted rotation is in the range 10-12” (Fig.
28a). These rotations reduce the separation of the
APWPs to about half the value required to
eliminate it altogether. The A2 pole and the Walper
pole bring the APWPs marginally closer together.
The geologically permitted rotations still leaves a
residual separation of 10-20” between the two
APWPs.
The “MO” fit of Rabinowitz and LaBrecque
(1979) is a better fit of northern South America to
western Africa. It has the effect of bringing South
America closer to North America, reducing the
distance between the contemporaneous shelves. It
leaves no room for any significant fragments be-
tween Florida and South America (Walper, 1980,
fig. 2; Klitgord et al., 1984). That northwestern
South America was close to the Gulf region in
Late Jurassic time is suggested by their remarka-
ble similarities in stratigraphy (Imlay, 1943). Prox-
imity is difficult to quantify, but a stronger Late
Jurassic similarity would be expected for the “MO”
fit than for the BES reconstruction.
For the “MO” fit, the APWP reference frag-
ment is now Africa west of the Benue Trough and

BES fit

60.

309

1) -120.
Fig. 28. (a) LA has been moved by the amount permitted by Fig. 6a for the BES fit. In all four cases the curves he close together,
leaving a significant gap between them and G. (LD, 30) and (LD, 45) are the positions of LA rotated 30 o and 45 o about PTZl. (b)
LA has been moved by the amount permitted by Fig. 6b for the MO fit. In ah four cases the curves he virtually on top of one another,
still leaving a significant gap between them and G, as in (a). The MO fit does not produce a significantly better paleomagnetic match
of the APWPs. In both diagrams LA = Laurussian reference APWP on Pangea A; G = Gondwana reference APWP on Pangea A.
166
its northern ~ntinuation, rather than the whole of
Africa west of the Somali plate. The MO fit moves
the APWP of Gondwana closer to the Laurussian
APWP (Fig. 28b) but because it also moves South
America closer to North America, the geologically
permitted rotations on the “MO” fit are smaller
than for the BES fit for all PTZs. The two effects
compensate and still leave a substantial gap be-
tween the two APWPs (Fig. 28b).
On both the BES and “MO” fits, it is impossi-
ble for the movement required to bring the APWPs
significantly closer together if Yucatan was posi-
tioned in the Gulf of Mexico embayment in Late
Permian time, as proposed by Pindell (1985, fig. 2,
p. 4). It would be possible for such movement to
take place on Anderson and Schmidt’s (1983, fig.
4, p. 945) reconstruction, in which Yucatan lies
farther west, provided their “Triassic” map is
post-PTZ. Yet further positions are possible, but
detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this
paper.
Crustal extension- the missing rotation?
We have not yet discussed the importance of
the observed, as opposed to postulated, Late Tri-
assic to Early Jurassic motion between Laurussia
and Gondwana-crustal extension. We take the
pole for extension to be the initial stage pole for
the opening of the Atlantic (Klitgord and Schou-
ten, 1986). The pole for the stage interval from
ma~mum closure to the Blake Spur Magnetic
Anomaly in Africa-fixed co-ordinates is (62, - 3).
The present width of the Triassic extensional
zone on the reconstruction is of the order of 500
km. Extension seems to have been preceded by
uplift of a broad arch which was then faulted to
give rise to a rugged mountainous topography
(Van Houten, 1977). Although hot-spot activity
may have contributed to the uplift (De Boer and
Snider, I979), the mountainous area may also
have had thicker than normal crust. Thus a signifi-
cant amount of stretching could have been needed
to reduce its thickness to that of normal crust
before it was thinned again to give the present
continental margin.
Inspection of continental margin profiles of
eastern North America suggests that they have a
A Ci. SMITH AND R.A LlVERMORE
stretching factor of about 1,7 over a width of
about 250 km, corresponding to a shortening of
about 100 km. Pindell (1985) estimates stretching
factors of 2.1 for part of the Gulf Coast, 1.8 for
part of the Florida Straits block and 3 for part of
the Blake Plateau. The total extension ranges from
about 150 km to 500 km. By symmetry, a similar
extension has probably taken place on the West
African margins. We take a total value of 250 km
as a plausible figure. A rotation of 3.5O gives 250
km stretching on the southern U.S. continental
margin, which is about 40” from the Euler pole.
An average stretching factor of no more than 2 is
indicated.
If the PTZ predates extension, then the stretch-
ing rotation of (62, - 3, 3.5) must be applied to
the APWPs before applying the PTZ rotation to
obtain the initial positions of the APWPs on the
older Pangea, though in practice the difference in
the final result on reversing the order of rotations
is small
Results
For all PTZs the result of applying the pre-
sumed stretching rotation is to bring the APWPs
closer together on the BES and “MO” fits. We
suspect that further improvements in the match of
the APWPs will be brought about by refinements
in the reconstruction. Such refinements will de-
pend on better estimates of the stretching factors
along the passive margins of Laurussia and
Gondwana; the deter~nation of Euler poles that
are consistent with the geology; addition of
paleomagnetic poles from other parts of
Gondwana, and incorporation of movement on
structures such as the South Atlas Fault.
For example, many of the Moroccan paleomag-
netic poles come parts of Africa north of the
South Atlas Fault (Appendix 1). There may be a
sinistral displacement on this transform fault of as
much as 250 km (Le Pichon et al., 197’7), though
other workers suggest it is much smaller (Sichler et
al., 1980) If the displacement is as much as 250
km, the curvature of the fault will give a signifi-
cant rotation to the Moroccan poles relative to
other parts of Africa. A preliminary redetermina-
tion of the South American/African APWP that
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 167

are now so small, their addition to the two other

rotations (MO to Mll, and extension) gives rise to
only small differences in the final result (Table 4).
For example, the rotation to move from Pangea A
along PTZ A2 to the former Pangea is (17,0, 18);
for Walper’s A2 PTZ it is (15, 0, 18)-a trivial
difference-and for the D PTZ (10, 6, 18). It is
interesting to note the finite rotation that sums all
three rotations and uses either the A2 PT’Z or
Walper’s PTZ for the PTZ rotation (Table 4) is
essentially indistinguishable from Van der Voo
and French’s (1974) original value of (19, - 1, 20)
that changes Pangea A to Pangea A2 by a single
rotation.
For this geologically plausible Pangea, the dis-
placements on the PTZs are now much smaller,
ranging from 170 km to 430 km. Such relatively
small displacements mean that some of the argu-
ments used above to reject PTZs that required
large displacements are no longer valid. In par-
ticular, if the A2 PTZ coincides with the West
Fig. 29. The open circles show points on three positions of the African Continental Magnetic Anomaly, then mo-
APWP for Laurussia windowed at 40 Ma. The leftmost is its
tion of only 170 km actually improves the fit of
position on Pangea A, the middle is after a rotation of (62, -
3,3.5), which removes extension, the rightmost is after a rota-
this anomaly with the East Coast Magnetic
tion of (19,2,5), which is the possible motion on a PTZ Anomaly of North America, rather than making it
passing east of the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly and south of worse. Similarly, a small rotation could be accom-
Iberia. The closed circles lie on the APWP for South America modated on the west side of the Florida pensinsula
and Africa, windowed at 40 Ma, with the MO rotation applied
by continental extension that did not reach the
to South America and southern Africa. Poles north of the
stage of producing (?)mid-Triassic oceanic crust,
South Atlas Fault in Morocco have been excluded.
required by a large PTZ displacement.
Rather than systematically listing the pros and
excludes the poles north of the South Atlas Fault cons of all classes of Pangea, we give what seems
gives a more poorly determined APWP whose to be the most probable. This is very close to the
older A,, circles are closer to the Laurussian original Pangea A2 of Van der Voo and French
APWP without any need to invoke a PTZ or give (1974), with South America tucked more closely
an excellent fit with the PTZ (Fig. 29). Younger into Africa, thereby giving better alignment to the
A,, that include extension and the PTZ rotations erogenic belts of South America and North
touch or are close to the Laurussian poles. America, as suggested by Walper (1980). The finite
In the belief that further geological refinements rotation of Van der Voo and French is essentially
will bring the APWPs closer together, we relax the identical to the finite rotation derived above (Ta-
requirement of using the maximum rotation per- ble 4). We suggest it was reached in three stages:
mitted by the geology make the older Pangea to by an Early Cretaceous rotation of all parts of
one of finding the rotation that visually aligns the Gondwanaland relative to northwest Africa; by
Paleozoic erogenic belts on the reconstruction, as Early Jurassic to Late Triassic continental exten-
suggested by Walper (1980), and at the same time sion between North America and northwest Africa
makes the A,, circles intersect or lie close to one and by a small (?)mid-Triassic motion along a
another. This relaxation reduces the rotation to PTZ centred near (19, 2) that runs along the
about 5O for all PTZs. Because the PTZ rotations WACMA/ECMA anomaly. This sequence of ro-
168 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

TABLE 4

Possible transitions from Pangea A to an older Pangea

Rotation sequence Lat. Long. Angle Age Results of

(“) (“) (“) rotation

MO to Ml1 3.5 - 2.6 - 11.1 Between latest Aptian The rotation breaks
(- 115 Ma) [i.e. just post-MO Africa into two plates along
(- 119 Ma)] and Berriasian the Benue Trough and its continuation
-Valanginian (- 138 Ma)

Extension rotation 62 -3 3.5 Early Jurassic to later The rotation causes

Triassic (- 178-225 Ma) extension between
Africa and North America

PTZ rotation PTZ lat. and long. 5 (?)mid-Triassic ( - 240 Ma) The rotation may have
caused Laurussia to rotate
about a transform fault
relative to Gondwanaland

Euler poles Lat. Long Angle PTZ age and displacement

(“) (“) (“)

Pole for Pangea D

PTZl (N Iberia; W BMA * ) - 5 27 5 (?)mid-Triassic (430 km)
Extension + PTZ 22 18 7
MO + extension + PTZ 10 6 18

Pole for Pangea A2

FIZZ (S Iberia; E BMA) 19 2 5 (?)mid-Triassic (170 km)
Extension + PTZ 37 0 8
MO + extension + PTZ 17 0 18

Pole for Walper’s A2

FTZ3 (S Iberia; W BMA) 13 3 5 (?)mid-Triassic (220 km)
Extension + PTZ 33 1 8
MO + extension + PTZ 15 0 18

No Pangea example
FTC4 (N Iberia; E BMA) 6 21 5 (?)mid-Triassic (340 km)
Extension-PTZ 29 14 7
MO + extension + PTZ 13 5 18

* BMA = Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly.

Fig. 30. The modified Pangea A2 that combines the extensional and translational rotations postulated above.
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME
tations suggests how Pangea A2 may be reasem-
bled by a rational sequence of geological events
from the conventional Pangea A.
A modified Pangea that is consistent with the
geological and paleomagnetic data is illustrated in
Fig. 30.
Conclusions
(1) Revised estimates of the APWPs of
Gondwanaland and Laurussia still show overlap
on Pangea A (i.e., the conventional Pangea) in
Middle to Early Jurassic time, but are significantly
different for the Middle Triassic to Late Carbonif-
erous interval.
(2) The differences can be attributed either to
mobility within Pangea such that Pangea A was
preceded by an older Pangea which evolved into
Pangea A in the Triassic to Early Jurassic interval,
or to persistent non-dipole field components, or to
some combination of the two.
(3) Large geometrical differences among the
various Pangeas spring from small differences in
the matching of the APWPs. The best match gives
a large displacement between Laurussia and
Gondwana, but other statistically acceptable
matches require much smaller displacements.
Paleomagnetism alone cannot discriminate be-
tween the various possibilities. That one of the
best paleomagnetic datasets is consistent with very
different displacements is a cause for concern.
(4) The Triassic to Early Jurassic geology of
the boundary between Laurussia and Gondwana-
land suggests that the transition from an older
Pangea to Pangea A took place along a transform
zone, named the Pangea Transform Zone, or PTZ.
No PTZ outcrop is known, but it could be con-
cealed under coastal plain or continental margin
sediments.
(5) Triassic to Early Jurassic tectonic activity
in areas adjacent to possible PTZs is largely exten-
sional. The activity appears to have graded con-
tinuously into the early opening phases of the
central Atlantic Ocean. Thus the PTZ is assumed
to have been active just prior to extension, in
mid-Triassic time.
(6) Possible PTZs can be suggested that are
compatible with relatively small (A2 Pangeas) or
169
large (B, C and D Pangeas) displacements. The
PTZs must avoid cutting the Brunswick Magnetic
Anomaly in the southeastern United States and
must avoid most of Iberia.
(7) The general geological evidence favours
Pangeas with a small displacement but those with
large displacement cannot be explicitly rejected.
(8) The stable Paleozoic shelf areas of north-
west South America and the southeastern United
States cannot overlap on a reconstruction. The
maximum rotation that just prevents overlap of
these areas still leaves a significant gap between
the APWPs on a Bullard et al. (1965) reconstruc-
tion or a fit modified to take into account the
much tighter fit of South America to northwest
Africa made by Rabinowitz and LaBrecque (1979).
This gap can be closed by applying a rotation to
take into account the observed extension.
(9) The most plausible pre-mid-Triassic Pangea
is very close to that of Van der Voo and French
(1974) modified by Walper (1980) to align the
Late Paleozoic erogenic belts of South America
and eastern North America.
(10) The transition from A2 to A (with the
“MO” fit of South America and northwest Africa)
was probably reached in two stages: by a small
(?)mid-Triassic motion along a PTZ with an Euler
pole near (19, 2) that runs along the
WACMA/ECMA anomaly; by Late Triassic to
Early Jurassic continental extension that evolved
into early Atlantic spreading.
(11) The “MO” correction to the conventional
Pangea and the rotation implied by extension re-
duce the displacement required on the PTZ to
- 170 km, rather than the - 600 km necessitated
by a single rotation. These rotations provide a
rational sequence of geological events for the tran-
sition of Pangea A2 into Pangea A.
(12) The classic Pangea of Wegener (1924),
quantified by Bullard et al. (1965) is only a
snapshot of a supercontinent at a particular mo-
ment.
(13) Further refinements depend particularly
on a better assessment of pre-ocean-floor exten-
sion along the passive circum-Atlantic and cir-
cum-Indian Ocean margins and on better
paleomagnetic data and allowing for rotations on
large structures such as the South Atlas Fault.
170 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

(14) Neither
non-dipole fields nor an expan-
ding Earth model need to be invoked to account
for the data.
Acknowledgements
We thank J.C. Briden, R.G. Gordon, F.J. Vine
and Lev Zonenshain for their comments and for
lively discussions; Jill Beak for editorial and criti-
cal help and Sheila Ripper for drawing the figures.
For financial support we are indebted to the Nat-
ural environment Research Council (GR3/~5~
and Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. We thank
T.W.C. Hilde for the invitation to take part in the
Silver Anniversary Meeting of Plate Tectonics at
Texas A&M. The University of Cambridge and
Texas A&M for helped with travel expenses that
enabled an earlier version of this paper to be
presented at the conference. This is Department of
Earth Sciences contribution number ES1856.

Appendix 1: Pdeomagnetie data (north p&s) for the interval NO-320 Ma

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma1 abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(Nl (El (N) (El

European Plate

Volcanics, France 43.0 t.3 64.9 143.6 201 lo/78

Normandy Redbeds 49.4 358.8 56.2 148.3 222 1 S/85
Volcanics, France 43.0 1.3 62.5 114.2 222 10/79
Voltzia Sandstone, Vosges 48.5 1.5 43.1 145.7 245 877 3
Sandstones, Germany 50.8 11.0 49.0 146.2 246 14,‘292
Dome de Barrot Redbeds 44.0 6.8 46.0 148.0 253 12/110
Esterel Sediments 43.5 6.8 51.5 142.0 253 14,‘308
Esterel Igneous Rocks 43.5 6.8 41.0 150.5 2.53 14/307
Lodeve Sandstones, France 43.5 3.0 48.0 164.0 262 14/318
Rotliegende, Czech. 50.5 15.7 41.9 168.6 265 14/315
Saar-Nahe Basin Igneous 49.5 7.0 47.9 176.0 265 15/110
Schopfheim Sediments 47.5 7.8 30.7 154.1 267 14,‘325
Nideck-Domen Volcanics 53.9 5.7 41.0 169.0 267 7/35
Nahe igneous Rocks so.0 8.0 46.0 167.0 267 5/36
Bohuslan Dykes, Sweden 58.6 11.3 46.4 164.5 272 TA80
Sk&ne Metaphyte Dykes 55.0 13.0 54.0 172.0 272 874
Boskovice Graben Redbeds 49.5 16.6 41.3 159.3 272 14/313
Porphyry and Sediments, Germany 51.0 11.0 31.3 166.2 272 14,‘316
Lower Silesia Volcanics 51.0 15.5 43.0 175.0 272 11/70
Krakow Volcanics 50.0 20.0 43.0 165.0 272 S/87
Schwatzwald Volts. and Seds. 48.3 7.7 48.4 174.1 272 14/324
Boscovice Graben Redbeds 49.2 16.4 40.3 168.1 272 14/312
Rotliegende Sediments 50.7 10.9 41.5 159.9 212 MR83 ’
Lodeve Sandstone, France 43.5 3.0 44.5 178.0 273 14/317
Oslo igneous Complex 59.7 10.4 47.0 157.0 276 s/37
Heliesund Diabase, Norway 58.0 7.8 38.6 160.7 276 12/119
L. Rotliegende, Czech. 50.6 15.5 37.8 169.7 278 14/314
Rotliegende Volcanites 50.7 10.9 37.1 169.9 281 MR83 ’
Sk%ne Quartz-Dolerite 55.5 13.5 38.0 168.0 283 B74
Mt. Hunneberg SIB, Sweden 58.5 12.5 38.0 166.0 285 10/108
Exeter Lavas 51.0 356.0 49.5 148.5 286 9/89
Exeter Lavas 51.0 356.0 46.0 165.0 286 9/90
Sarna Alkaline Complex 61.7 12.9 38.0 167.0 287 BP77
Arendale Diabase Dykes A&C 58.4 8.8 42.5 159.6 289 14/336 ’
Arendale Diabase Dykes B&D 58.4 8.8 44.7 140.7 289 14/337 s
L. Nideck Volcanics, France 48.5 7.3 41.7 168.3 289 14/334 3
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 171

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma) abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(N) (R) (N) (E)
Mt. Billingen Sill, Sweden 58.5 14.0 31.0 174.0 293 10/107
SkPne Dolerite Dykes 55.5 13.5 37.0 174.0 293 10/109
Whin Sill ’ 55.5 358.3 44.0 159.0 301 11/77
Plzen Basin Redbeds, Czech. 2 49.8 13.3 31.1 151.7 303 10/112
Inner Sudetic Plain Sed. + Ign. ’ 50.6 16.1 38.7 176.8 303 lO/lll
Kladuo-Rakovink Red Muds 2 50.2 14.0 35.5 153.8 303 10/113
Krakonose Redbeds 50.5 15.4 44.7 174.1 303 14/349
Bianice Redbeds 50.0 14.8 40.2 153.9 303 14/347
Wackerfield Dyke 54.5 358.2 22.0 175.0 309 14/350

Notes:
’ Highly altered
’ Could have been rotated by Variscan orogeny
3 Poles additional to those used in Livermore et al. (1986)

European Plate (Soviet data)

USSR data 47.7 13.3 37.5 103.4 201 16/123

USSR data 48.0 38.0 60.0 135.0 237 RP8.8R/91
USSR data 48.0 38.0 49.0 152.0 237 RP8.9R/92
USSR data 52.5 55.0 62.0 125.0 246 RP8.5R/lO
USSR data 48.0 47.0 52.0 150.0 246 RP8.6R/lO
USSR data 59.0 51.0 50.0 174.0 246 RPB.lR/ll
USSR data 48.5 52.0 48.0 153.0 246 RP8.7R/lO
USSR data 52.5 55.0 45.0 152.0 246 RP8.3R/ll
USSR data 52.5 51.0 51.0 164.0 246 RP8.4R/lO
USSR data 54.0 52.0 49.0 167.0 253 RW.lR/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 40.0 158.0 253 RP7.9R/13
USSR data 61.0 46.0 48.0 165.0 253 RP7.13R/l
USSR data 57.0 55.0 40.0 167.0 253 RP7.7R/13
USSR data 54.0 52.0 44.0 169.0 253 RPII.lOR/l
USSR data 59.0 51.0 43.0 162.0 253 RP7.14R/l
USSR data 52.5 55.0 61.0 152.0 253 RP7.16R/l
USSR data 49.0 38.0 38.0 159.0 253 RP7.8R/13
USSR data 56.0 55.0 40.0 168.0 253 RP7.6R/13
USSR data 48.5 52.0 52.0 152.0 253 RP7.17R/l
USSR data 57.0 54.0 39.0 167.0 253 RW.llR/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 46.0 166.0 272 RP7.3R/14
USSR data 48.0 38.0 36.0 159.0 272 RP7.4R/14
USSR data 48.0 38.0 43.0 160.0 272 RP7.1R/14
USSR data 48.0 38.0 40.0 152.0 272 RP7.2R/l4
USSR data 49.0 38.0 46.0 170.0 272 RP7.5R/14
USSR data 55.0 38.0 46.0 177.0 287 RP6.36R/l
USSR data 56.0 38.0 42.0 167.0 287 RP6.37R/l
USSR data 55.0 39.0 41.0 167.0 290 RP6.31R/l
USSR data 56.0 39.0 42.0 169.0 290 RP6.30R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 40.0 182.0 303 RP6.32R/l
USSR data 48.0 41.0 25.0 186.0 303 RP6.29R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 38.0 170.0 303 RP6.35R/l
USSR data 49.0 38.0 40.0 184.0 303 RP6.33R/l
USSR data 49.0 38.0 44.0 171.0 303 RP6.34R/l
172 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma) abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(Nl (El (N) (El
USSR data 48.0 38.0 26.0 157.0 306 RP6.22R/l
USSR data 54.0 42.0 31.0 168.0 306 RP6.24R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 29.0 173.0 306 RP6.18R/l
USSR data 48.0 41 .o 36.0 195.0 306 RP6.23R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 32.0 183.0 306 RP6.13R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 29.0 183.0 306 RP6.16R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 19.0 166.0 306 RP6.15R/l
USSR data 55.0 36.0 32.0 166.0 306 RP6.25R/l
USSR data 55.0 39.0 34.0 170.0 306 RP6.28R/l
USSR data 48.0 41 .o 28.0 181.0 306 RP6.19R/l
USSR data 48.0 41.0 35.0 195.0 306 RP6.20R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 32.0 177.0 306 RP6.14R,‘l
USSR data 55.0 38.0 29.0 155.0 306 RP6.26R/l
USSR data 56.0 34.0 33.0 158.0 306 RP6.27R/l
USSR data 48.0 38.0 17.0 168.0 306 RP6.21R/l

Greenland Plate
Fleming Fjord Formation 71.7 336.6 34.0 103.2 222 14/275
Kapp Biot Sediments 72.0 337.0 68.0 160.0 228 4/14

Note:
Greenland poles are listed but have not been used for the Laurussia APWP.

North American Plate

Newark Group 40.5 285.1 63.0 108.0 194 5/34

Palisades Sill 41 .o 286.0 74.0 98.0 195 RS76
Connecticutt Valley Igneous 41.5 287.3 65.0 87.0 196 10/88
Anticosti is. Diabase 49.8 296.8 75.7 84.7 197 14/247
Appalachian Dykes 40.0 286.0 68.6 100.9 197 15/75
Pennsylvania Diabase 40.2 283.7 62.0 104.5 199 14/285
Nova Scotia Diabase 44.0 294.5 69.0 98.0 202 8/68
North Mountain Basalt 44.9 294.6 73.0 104.0 205 IO/89
Kayenta Sandstone 38.5 250.4 61.9 74.4 216 14/280
Chime Formation 35.0 256.0 57.6 79.1 216 14/278
Upper Chinle Formation 35.0 255.9 56.4 91 .o 222 14/277
Upper Chinle Formation 35.0 256.3 59.7 80.4 222 14/276
Connecticut Valley Igneous 41.5 287.3 65.0 87.0 222 10/88
Kayenta Formation 38.5 250.5 61.2 82.5 222 14/279
Pennsylvania Diabase 40.2 283.7 62.0 104.5 222 14/285
Manicouagan Structure 52.0 292.0 59.8 88.8 230 9/52
Idaho-Wyoming Redbeds 43.0 250.0 50.8 104.6 231 15/103
Chugwater Formation 42.5 251.5 48.5 112.2 240 VG77
Upper Maroon Formation 39.6 253.4 56.0 246 lo/96
Hoskinnini Tongue 36.1 247.8 50.0 121 .o 246 11,‘58
Moenkopi Formation 38.6 251.1 57.0 100.2 246 14,‘299
Moenkopi Formation 38.6 251.1 57.0 89.0 246 11/59
Ochoan Sediments 35.5 260.5 54.9 118.9 252 PN71
Prince Edward Is. Sill 46.0 296.0 52.0 113.0 253 9/65
Guadalupian Sediments 32.5 256.0 51.1 125.4 257 PN71
Leonardian Sediments 36.0 263.0 44.8 114.6 263 PN71
PANGFA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 173

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma) abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(NJ (El (N) (EJ
Haigaito Tongue 36.1 247.8 49.0 117.0 267 11/67
Toroweap Formation 36.1 247.8 47.0 103.0 267 11/6S
Various Redbeds 34.5 256.0 48.0 114.0 267 13/47
Fountain and Lykins Redbeds 40.2 254.7 47.4 119.3 269 10/106
Ingleside Formation 40.8 254.8 45.9 122.1 272 DS79
Cutler Formation 38.7 250.0 43.0 122.0 272 13/50
Cutler Formation 38.4 250.4 44.0 116.0 272 13/51
Dunkard Series 39.5 279.0 44.0 122.0 272 8/88
Elephant Canyon Formation 38.4 250.4 43.6 119.6 212 13/52
Casper Formation 41.5 254.8 50.6 123.4 277 DS81
Wolfcampian Sediments 35.0 251.0 41.2 117.7 277 PN71
Prince maward Is. Redbeds 46.5 296.3 42.0 133.0 289 8,‘99
Bonaventure Formation 48.0 29S.0 38.0 x33.0 289 8,‘lOO
Casper Formation 41.5 254.8 45.9 129.1 293 DS81
Maroon Formation 39.6 253.4 40.8 123.5 303 CH74
Kittanning Coal 41.0 280.5 37.0 131.6 303 KN76
Hurley Creek Formation 46.0 294.0 39.0 125.0 303 9,‘98
Pictou Group Sandstones 46.0 296.0 41 .o 132.0 303 8/101
Cumberland Group 45.7 295.5 36.0 125.0 310 11/76
Hopewell Group 47.7 295.5 34.0 118.0 314 11/78
Mauch Chunk Formation 40.0 283.0 43.0 127.0 320 10/119
Maringouin Formation 45.6 295.2 34.0 117.0 320 10/120

African Plate (excluding Somali PIare)

Marangudzi Complex - 22.1 30.7 70.2 285.1 183 10/77

Mateke Hills Complex -21.8 31.2 58.6 259.7 183 8,‘63
Freetown Igneous Complex 8.4 346.8 80.9 224.6 184 13/40
Liberian Diabase Intrusives 6.5 349.5 68.5 242.4 187 14,‘248
Draa Valley Sills, Morocco 29.5 353.5 65.5 230.5 187 13/36
Foum Zguid Dyke, Morocco 30.5 353.5 58.0 259.0 189 13/35
Midelt Limestones, Morocco 35.7 354.4 61.6 210.1 201 16,‘126
Stormberg Lavas, Basuto - 29.6 29.3 71 .o 269.0 201 6/40-3
Karroo Lavas, Zimbabwe - 18.0 30.0 57.0 264.0 201 12/93
Shawa Ijolite, Zimbabwe - 19.2 31.7 64.0 266.0 209 8/72
Jntrusives, Morocco 32.0 352.5 71.0 216.0 210 14/573
Argana Redbeds, Morocco 30.5 351.0 50.6 251.4 222 16,‘130
Red Sandstones, Zambia - 16.2 28.8 68.0 230.S 222 8.67
Titchka Sandstone, Morocco 31.5 352.6 48.5 266.8 227 14/290
Ait-Aadei Dolerite, Morocco 31.6 352.7 72.0 254.5 237 14,‘288
Jerada Sediments, Morocco 34.3 357.8 76.7 246.1 237 15,‘89
Combined Basalts, Morocco 33.9 356.1 65.1 253.6 237 15/93
Upper Beaufort Sediments - 30.0 28.0 67.0 267.0 246 8/73
Cassanje Series, Angola - 15.0 16.0 54.0 257.0 251 VRP78
Serie d’Abadla Redbeds 31.0 357.3 29.0 240.0 272 MJDM81
Djebel Tarhat Redbeds 33.5 353.5 24.0 243.8 272 16/142
Taztot Trachyandesite 32.2 354.0 38.7 236.8 272 15/115
Chougrane Redbeds 33.0 353.7 32.2 244.1 272 15/114
Dykes and Contact, Morocco 33.0 352.5 16.1 242.5 303 16,‘148
174 A.G SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma) abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(NJ (El (N) (El
Somali Plate (East Africa)

Maji-Yar Chumvi Beds - 3.8 39.5 67.0 269.0 246 14/303

K3 Beds, Tanzania - 10.0 34.5 27.0 269.0 277 8/91
Galula Coalfield, Tanzania - 8.8 32.9 45.5 222.0 294 8/92

Note:
None of the Somali poles have been used for the African APWP.

Madagascan Plare

lsalo Group II - 22.7 45.0 69.0 253.0 210 MEDP76

Isalo Group I - 16.7 47.1 74.0 284.0 228 MEDP76
M. Sakamena Group - 23.9 44.5 64.0 276.5 246 15/96
L. Sakamena Group -23.1 45.0 64.9 293.9 253 15/107
Sakoa Group Red Series - 23.1 45.0 60.0 254.5 272 15/113
Sakoa Glacial Series - 23.8 44.7 47.9 264.1 303 15/120

Sourh American Plate

Pesadero Porphyry 6.8 287.0 87.8 96.8 197 14/273

Guacamayas Volcanics 9.0 291.8 70.5 120.7 198 14/272
Bolivar Dykes 1.5 296.8 66.9 65.6 203 14/272
Cachueta Group Basalts - 32.5 290.9 74.0 86.0 222 11/46
Ishigualasto Volcanics - 30.3 292.3 79.2 59.2 229 14/286
Mendoza Lavas - 33.0 292.0 80.0 48.0 231 11/49
Surinam Dolerite Dykes 4.0 304.5 82.0 140.0 232 13/42
Puesto Viejo Igneous - 35.0 292.0 75.9 56.2 237 14/291
Nihuil Mendoza Lavas - 33.0 292.0 81.0 102.0 246 11/56
Amana-Talampaya - 30.3 292.3 75.0 105.0 249 VVM77
La Rioja Paganzo - 29.0 292.0 77.0 355.0 250 11/60
Amana Formation - 30.3 292.3 63.0 149.0 251 16/136
Irati Formation Dolerites - 23.8 312.0 82.7 234.7 253 15/106
Corumbatal Formation - 22.1 312.5 86.0 114.0 253 15/104
Amana Formation Chasquil - 27.8 292.0 85.0 244.0 253 14/306
La Colina, Los Colorados - 30.0 292.7 82.0 169.0 272 14/309
La Colina, Paganzo - 30.3 292.3 78.0 69.0 262 SAP7
Los Colorados Paganzo - 29.5 293.0 74.0 128.0 279 12/109
Los Colorados Paganzo - 29.5 293.0 59.0 178.0 289 SAP4
La Colina, Los Colorados - 30.0 292.7 74.0 133.0 289 14/333
Itarare Subgroup, Tubarao -21.5 312.8 57.0 177.0 291 15/119
La Colina, Las Mellizas - 30.0 293.0 49.0 163.0 301 svv79
Tubarao - 22.0 312.0 54.0 171.0 303 PP76
La Colina Basalt - 30.1 292.6 66.0 168.0 303 14/345
Piavi Formation -5.0 317.0 50.0 165.0 303 12/124

Australian Plate

Garrawilla and Nombi Igneous -31.0 150.0 46.1 355.1 197 15/72
Western Victoria Basalt - 37.3 141.4 47.0 358.0 201 15/71
Brisbane Tuff - 27.8 153.0 57.0 323.0 237 7/33
Chocolate Shale - 33.9 150.9 49.0 340.0 246 7/34
Cribas Formation, Timor - 9.0 126.0 58.3 341.1 253 16/140
PANGEA IN PERMIAN TO JURASSIC TIME 175

Area and rock unit Site Pole Age Reference

(Ma) abbreviation
lat. long. lat. long.
(N) (E) (N) (E)
Upper Marine Latites - 34.6 150.8 44.0 312.0 255 l/39
Combined Volcanics - 30.0 150.0 44.0 312.0 289 15,‘188
Rocky Creek Conglomerate - 30.0 150.3 51.0 318.0 303 S/104
Currabubulla Formation - 31.1 150.8 42.0 315.0 303 8/105
Hunter Valley Glacial - 32.6 151.7 53.0 329.0 303 8,‘103

Antarctic Plate (East Antarctica)

Queen Alexandra Intrusives - 84.0 165.0 54.2 40.2 201 15/223

Storm Peak Lavas - 84.0 165.0 44.1 51.5 201 15/221
Mt. Falla Lavas - 84.0 165.0 53.8 42.6 201 15/222

Notes to Appendix 1

Paleomagnetic references

Numbers in right-hand column refer to lists published in the Geophysical Journal, e.g., lo/77 denotes pole 77 in list 10 (or Roman
X). Other codes as below:

B74 Bylund, G., 1974. Palaeomagnetism of dykes along the southern margin of the Baltic Shield. Geol. For. Stockh. Forh., 96:
231-235.
B77 Biquand, D., 1977. Paleomagnetisme de la formation des “gres-a-Voltzia (Buntsandstein superieur) du Massif des Vosges
(France). Can. J. Earth Sci., 14: 1490-1514.
BP77 Bylund, G. and Patchett, P.J., 1977. Palaeomagnetic and Rb-Sr isotopic evidence for the age of the Sarna alkaline
complex, west-central Sweden Lithos, 1: 73-79.
CH74 Christensen, F.D. and Helsley, C.E., 1974. Palaeomagnetic results from the late Palaeozoic Maroon Formation. Eos Trans.
Am. Geophys. Univ., 55: 225.
DS79 Diehl, J.F. and Shive, P.N., 1979. Palaeomagnetic studies of the early Permian Ingleside Formation of Northern Colorado,
Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 56: 271-282.
DS81 Diehl, J.F. and Shive, P.N., 1981. Palaeomagnetic results from the late Carboniferous/early Permian Casper Formation:
implications for northern Appalachian tectonics. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 54: 281-292.
KN76 Kopacz, M.A. and Noltimier, H.C., 1976. The coal pole and the Kittanning reversal, Eos, Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 57;
238.

Pole McElhinny, M.W., 1968a. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-VIII. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 15: 409-430.
lists McElhinny, M.W., 1968b. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-IX. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 16: 207-224.
McEIhinny, M.W., 1969. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-X. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 18: 305-327.
McElhinny, M.W., 1970. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XI. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 20: 417-429.
McElhinny, M.W., 1972a. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XII. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 27: 237-257.
McElhinny, M.W., 1972b. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XIII. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 30: 281-293.
McElhinny, M.W., 1973. Palaeomagnetism and Plate Tectonics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 358 pp.
McElhinny, M.W. and Cowley, J.A., 1977. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XIV. Geophys. J. R. Astron.
Sot., 49: 313-356.
McElhinny, M.W. and Cowley, J.A., 1978. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XV. Geophys, J. R. Astron.
Sot., 52: 259-276.
McElhinny, M.W. and Cowley, J.A., 1980. Palaeomagnetic directions and pole positions-XVI. Geophys. J. R. Astron.
Sot., 61: 549-571.

MEDP76 McElhinny, M.W., Embleton, B.J.J., Daly, L. and Pozzi, J.P., 1976. Palaeomagnetic evidence for the location of
Madagascar in Gondwanaland Geology, 4:455-457.
MR83 Mauritsch, M. and Rother, K., 1983. Paleomagnetic investigations in the Thtiringer Forest (East Germany). Tectonophysics,
99: 63-72.
MIDM81 Morel, P., Irving, E., Daly, L. and Moussine-Douchkin, A., 1981. Palaeomagnetic results from Permian rocks of the
Northern Saharan craton and motions of the Moroccan Meseta and Pangaea, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 55: 65-74.
176 A.G. SMITH AND R.A. LIVERMORE

PP76 Pascholati, E.M. and Pacca, LG., 1976. Estudo paleomagnetico de Sec@es do Subgrupo Itarart. 29th Congr. Brasileiro de
Geologia, Belo Horizonte.
PN71 Peterson, D.N. and Nairn, A.E.M., 1971. Palaeomagnetism of Permian redbeds from the south-western United States.
Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 23: 191-207.
RP The prefix RP refers to Russian pole list.
RS76 Rigotti, P. and Schmidt, V.. 1976. The palaeomagnetism of the Palisades Sill (abstr.). Eos. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union,
57: 910.
SAP South American summaries by Vilas (1981) and Valencio et al. (1983): Valencio, D.A. and Vilas, J.F. and Pacca, 1.G..
1983. The significance of the palaeomagnetism of Jurassic-Cretaceous rocks from South America: predrift movements.
hairpins and magnetostratigraphy. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot.. 73: 135-151.
Vilas, J.F.A., 1981. Paleomagnetism of South American rocks and the dynamic processes related with the fragmentation of
western Gondwana. In: M.W. McElhinny and D.A. Valencio (Editors), Paleoreconstructions of the Continents. Vol. 2.
Geodyn. Ser., Am. Geophys. Union, pp. 1066114.
svv79 Sinito, A.M., Valencio, D.A. and Vilas, J.F.A.. 1979. Palaeomagnetism of sequence of upper Palaeozoic/lower Mesozoic
red beds from Argentina. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 58: 237-247.
TA80 Thorning, L. and Abrahamsen, N.. 1980. Palaeomagnetism of Permian multiple intrusion dykes in Bohuslan. SW Sweden.
Geophys. J. R. Astron. Sot., 60: 1633185.
VG77 Van der Voo, R. and Grubbs, K.L., 1977. Palaeomagnetism of the Triassic Chugwater redbeds revisited. Wyoming, U.S.A.
Tectonophysics, 41: T27-T33.
VRP78 Valencio, D.A., Rocha Campos, A. and Pacca, LG., 1978. Palaeomagnetism of the Cassanje ‘*Series” (Karroo System),
Angola. An. Acad. Brasil. Ci&c., 50: 353-364.
VVMII Valencio, D.A., Vilas, J.F.A. and Mendia, J.E., 1977. Palaeomagnetism of sequence of red beds of the middle and upper
sections of Paganzo Group (Argentina) and the correlation of upper Palaeozoic-lower Mesozoic rocks. Geophys. J. R.
Astron. Sot., 51: 59-14.

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