Upper Carboniferous palaeomagnetic pole from the stable Saharan Craton andGondwana reconstructions

A palaeomagnetic study was conducted at different stratigraphical positions in rocks of Upper Carboniferous age (Bashkirian) in the Illizi Basin (Alge ria). Three distinct remanence directions were isolated in these rocks. The first direction is associated with a Cenozoic magnetic overprint. The seco nd direction yields a palaeomagnetic pole (40.3 degreesS, 64.3 degreesE) th at is similar to previously published African Permian poles and is interpre ted as a Permian remagnetisation. The third direction gives a new Late Carb oniferous (Bashkirian) African palaeomagnetic pole (28.2 degreesS, 55.5 deg reesE, K = 207, A(95) = 3.4 degrees). This pole is in a good agreement with previously published Saharan poles for the neighbouring periods. The combi nation of the new given datum with the previous Carboniferous poles of Gond wana shows that the reconstruction of Gondwana should be based on the param eters of Ricou et al. (1990) rather than on those of the classical du Toit (1937) model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.