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Palaeomagnetism of the Lower Carboniferous Billefjorden Group, Spitsbergen

Abstract Palaeomagnetic data from mid to late Palaeozoic rocks are potentially valuable for testing models of the assembly of Spitsbergen and for determining the palaeo-position of parts of Spitsbergen relative to the major tectonic elements that comprised the Old Red Continent. Fine-grained red sandstones from the Tournaisian to Namurian Billefjorden Group, collected by members of Cambridge Spitsbergen expeditions, were subjected to stepwise chemical and thermal demagnetization. The characteristic magnetization is found in normal and reverse polarities and corresponds to a pole position at 23° S, 332 °E, dp = 5.7°, dm = 10.5°, which is near an early Carboniferous pole computed for the Baltic Shield-Russian Platform (Baltica). When compared to Laurentia (North America) in the context of the revised Mauch Chunk palaeomagnetic study, Spitsbergen falls a few degrees south of the Bullard reconstruction but the error of the determination of the palaeolatitude overlaps with this position. Therefore relative motion between any part of Spitsbergen and Laurentia and Baltica during the Carboniferous is not resolved.