Ab. Weil et al., THE PROTEROZOIC SUPERCONTINENT RODINIA - PALEOMAGNETICALLY DERIVED RECONSTRUCTIONS FOR 1100 TO 800 MA, Earth and planetary science letters, 154(1-4), 1998, pp. 13-24
Well-dated paleomagnetic poles for the interval 1100-800 Ma have been
compiled for the Laurentia, Baltica, S (a) over tilde o Francisco, Con
go and Kalahari cratons in order to construct apparent polar wander pa
ths (APWPs) for this interval, Laurentia's APWP consists of a well-det
ermined Keweenawan track for 1100-1000 Ma and a 1000-800 Ma Grenville
loop. We use a counterclockwise APW loop for the Grenville poles based
on ages for post-metamorphic cooling through similar to 500 degrees C
for the Grenville Province between 1000 and 950 Ma, and the temporal
and spatial similarities with Proterozoic counterclockwise APWP's for
other cratons. Baltica's APWP is comprised of seven dated poles that d
efine a similar loop, counterclockwise and hinged at 950 Ma, that can
be superimposed on the Laurentian Grenville loop. This loop is also se
en in the seven poles of the APWP for the combined S (a) over tilde o
Francisco-Congo craton; superposition of these loops leads to a recons
truction in which the S (a) over tilde o Francisco-Congo craton is to
the south-southeast of Laurentia in present-day coordinates. A long 10
90-985 Ma APWP track for the Kalahari is in reasonable agreement with
the roughly coeval Keweenawan track when the Kalahari craton is rotate
d similar to 40 degrees counterclockwise away from the Congo craton wh
ile remaining hinged at the Zambezi belt. The resulting Rodinia recons
truction resembles those previously proposed on geological grounds for
Laurentia, East Gondwana, Baltica, S (a) over tilde o Francisco-Congo
, and the Kalahari craton. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.