Embracing Uncertainty to Resolve Polar Wander: A Case Study of Cenozoic North America

L. C. Gallo, M. Domeier, F. Sapienza, N. L. Swanson-Hysell, B. Vaes, Y. Zhang, M. Arnould, A. Eyster, D. Gürer, Király, B. Robert, T. Rolf, G. Shephard, A. van der Boon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Our understanding of Earth's paleogeography relies heavily on paleomagnetic apparent polar wander paths (APWPs), which represent the time-dependent position of Earth's spin axis relative to a given block of lithosphere. However, conventional approaches to APWP construction have significant limitations. First, the paleomagnetic record contains substantial noise that is not integrated into APWPs. Second, parametric assumptions are adopted to represent spatial and temporal uncertainties even where the underlying data do not conform to the assumed distributions. The consequences of these limitations remain largely unknown. Here, we address these challenges with a bottom-up Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation scheme that operates on site-level paleomagnetic data. To demonstrate our methodology, we present an extensive compilation of site-level Cenozoic paleomagnetic data from North America, which we use to generate a high-resolution APWP. Our results demonstrate that even in the presence of substantial noise, polar wandering can be assessed with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere2023GL103436
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume50
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 16 2023
Externally publishedYes

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Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Authors.

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