EARLY SILURIAN PALEOLATITUDE OF THE SPRINGDALE GROUP REDBEDS OF CENTRAL NEWFOUNDLAND - A PALEOMAGNETIC DETERMINATION WITH A REMANENCE ANISOTROPY TEST FOR INCLINATION ERROR - COMMENT

Recent palaeomagnetic results from coeval Silurian sedimentary and vol canic rocks of Newfoundland yield contradictory results, with shallow characteristic directions recorded by the redbeds and steeper characte ristic directions recorded by the volcanics. In their recent paper on the Springdale Group redbed, Hodych & Buchan (1994a) argue that the re dbed magnetization is more reliable based on a fold test, dual-polarit y magnetization, conglomerate test and an IRM acquisition experiment s pecifically designed to test for compaction or inclination error. Acco rdingly, these authors dismiss the volcanic results as well as the Sil urian reference poles for Laurentia, citing possible remagnetization o r other complications. However, we argue that the IRM experiments of H odych and Buchan (1994a) are flawed and do not necessarily resolve the question of inclination error. Moreover, we point out that the conglo merate test is incomplete and that the proposed tectonic reconstructio n based solely on the redbed magnetization implies a unique tectonic s cenario that is incompatible with out present understanding of Siluria n palaeogeography.