Paleomagnetism of Lower Paleozoic Terranes in the Northern Appalachians

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The early Paleozoic plate configurations, as determined by paleomagnetic investigations, indicates that North America occupied equatorial paleolatitudes with its Appalachian margin facing south. Across the Iapetus Ocean lay the Gondwana super- continent along with the Avalon-Armorica microcontinent. Previous work on this project has resulted in considerable progress in tracking the positions of plates and microplates in the ensuing closure of Iapetus. This renewal will expand this work by supporting additional sample collections from rock sequences from suspect terranes and the adjoining margin of North America, and the completion of the paleomagnetic analysis of these and previous collections. Results should allow a synthesis of the movement histories of the oceanic terranes during closure of Iapetus and the relationship to Early Paleozoic orogenic events on the margins of North America.