Paleomagnetism of ~1.09 Ga Lake Shore Traps (Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan): New results and implications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2013

Abstract

We report paleomagnetic data from a new section of the ~1.09 Ga Lake Shore Traps exposed on Silver Island (10 flows) and on the adjacent mainland (two flows) along the northwestern coastline of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. We also present new data from nine additional lava flows, sampled from the tip of the peninsula previously studied by Diehl and Haig in 1994. Samples from all these lava flows yield well-defined characteristic magnetization directions upon thermal demagnetization. After structural tilt correction, the directions from Silver Island (site-mean declination, D = 276.9°; site-mean inclination, I = 44.4°; 95% radius of confidence for site mean, α95 = 2.6°; number of samples, N = 10) and mainland (D = 298.7°, I = 36.0°, α95 = 10.1°, N = 2) flows are close to the directions from equivalent lava flows from the upper (D = 277.8°, I = 41.0°, α95 = 2.3°, N = 17) and lower (D = 300.0°, I = 34.9°, α95 = 2.3°, N = 10) sections of the middle Lake Shore Traps exposed at the eastern tip of the Peninsula, respectively. Testing the paleomagnetic directions for serial correlation shows that some of the sequential lava flows on Silver Island and from the middle Lake Shore Traps at the tip of the Peninsula record the same vector of the geomagnetic field. Combining these correlated directions yielded new mean directions for Silver Island (D = 277.2°, I = 44.1°, α95 = 3.1°, N = 8), and the upper (D = 277.0°, I = 40.4°, α95 = 3.7°, N = 10) and lower (D = 298.6°, I = 33.3°, α95 = 4.3°, N = 5) middle Lake Shore Traps at the tip of the Peninsula. The statistical similarity of paleomagnetic directions obtained from these two locations with significantly different structural trends supports the conclusions of prior studies that the curvature of the Midcontinent Rift is primary. The new paleomagnetic pole for the Lake Shore Traps is located at 23.1°N, 186.4°E (95% confidence for the paleomagnetic pole, α95 = 4.0°; N = 31) and merits a nearly perfect six-point classification on the paleomagnetic reliability scale.

Publication Title

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS