APPLICATION OF BINGHAM STATISTICS TO A PALEOPOLE DATA SET - TOWARDS ABETTER DEFINITION OF APWP TRENDS

Bingham statistical analyses were applied to paleomagnetic data from 5 0 published studies from North America, of Carboniferous through Early Jurassic age, in an attempt to test whether the azimuths of the long axes of the Bingham ellipses lie tangent to the apparent polar wander path. The underlying assumption is that paleomagnetic directions will form a Fisherian (circular) distribution if no apparent polar wander h as taken place during magnetization acquisition. However, the distribu tion should appear elongated (elliptical) if magnetization acquisition occurred over a significant amount of time involving apparent polar w ander. The long axes in direction space yield corresponding azimuths i n paleopole space, which can be compared to the North American APWP. W e find that, generally, these azimuths are indeed sub-parallel to the APWP, validating the methods and the hypothesis. Plotting a pole as an azimuthal cord, representing the long axis of the ellipse, will provi de additional robustness or definition to an APWP based upon temporall y sparse paleomagnetic studies.