Jurassic to Paleocene paleolatitudes of the Pacific plate derived from the paleomagnetism of the sedimentary sequences at Sites 800, 801, and 802

Abstract

The remanent magnetizations contained in the three sedimentary sections recovered by Leg 129 are of relatively strong intensities and have notably minor amounts of secondary magnetization. The inclination records from the three holes provide a relatively continuous history of the paleolatitudinal motion of the oldest portion of the Pacific plate from the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous to the Callovian/Bathonian boundary of the Middle Jurassic. All data indicate that this embryonic portion of the Pacific plate was in southern paleolatitudes from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous and probably crossed the equator between the Turonian and the late Paleocene. These data suggest that during the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous, the plate was never too far from the equator, varying between about 20°S and equatorial latitudes. -from Authors