FAR-TRAVELED PERMIAN CHERT OF THE NORTH FORK TERRANE, KLAMATH MOUNTAINS, CALIFORNIA

Permian chert in the North Fork terrane and correlative rocks of the K lamath Mountains province has a remanent magnetization that is prefold ing and presumably primary. Paleomagnetic results indicate that the ch ert formed at a paleolatitude of 8.6 degrees +/- 2.5 degrees but in wh ich hemisphere remains uncertain. This finding requires that these roc ks have undergone at least 8.6 degrees +/- 4.4 degrees of northward tr ansport relative to Permian North America since their deposition. Pale ontological evidence suggests that the Permian limestone of the Easter n Klamath terrane originated thousands of kilometers distant from Nort h America. The limestone of the North Fork terrane may have formed at a similar or even greater distance as suggested by its faunal affinity to the Eastern Klamath terrane and more westerly position. Available evidence indicates that convergence of the North Fork and composite Ce ntral Metamorphic-Eastern Klamath terranes occurred during Triassic or Early Jurassic time and that their joining together was a Middle Jura ssic event. Primary and secondary magnetizations indicate that the new composite terrane containing these and other rocks of the Western Pal eozoic and Triassic belt behaved as a single rigid block that has been latitudinally concordant with the North American craton since Middle Jurassic time.