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Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series An open-access serial publication for refereed proceedings and special publications
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Articles | Volume 4
Stephan Mueller Spec. Publ. Ser., 4, 313–327, 2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/smsps-4-313-2009
Stephan Mueller Spec. Publ. Ser., 4, 313–327, 2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/smsps-4-313-2009

  17 Sep 2009

17 Sep 2009

Paleomagnetism of the Cretaceous rocks from Cape Kronotskiy, East Kamchatka and reconstruction of terrane trajectories in the NE Pacific area

W. Harbert1, N. V. Tsukanov2, D. V. Alexeiev3, C. Gaedicke4, R. Freitag5, B. V. Baranov2, S. G. Skolotnev3, W. Kramer6, and W. Seifert6 W. Harbert et al.
  • 1National Energy Technology Laboratory and Geology and Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • 2P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 36, Nakhimovsky Prospekt, 117997 Moscow, Russia
  • 3Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky Lane 7, 119017 Moscow, Russia
  • 4Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hannover, Germany
  • 5University Jena, Institute of Earth Sciences, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany
  • 6GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

Abstract. The Kamchatka Peninsula of northeastern Russia is located along the northwestern margin of the Bering Sea and consists of zones of complexly deformed accreted terranes. Paleomagnetic samples were collected for study from a Late Cretaceous aged locality at Cape Kronotskiy (λ=54°44.8´ N, φ=162°1.29´ E). Two components of magnetization were observed. During stepwise thermal demagnetization, the B-magnetic component was observed up to 600°C having a direction and associated uncertainty in stratigraphic coordinates of Ds=300.7°, Is=48.7°, α95=10.9°, k-value=11.8, n=17. The B component paleolatitude calculated from the Fisher mean in stratigraphic coordinates and associated statistics are λobs=30.4° N or S, λ95=8.9°, n=17 (sites), k-value=11. Our overall study paleolatitude result is similar to a previously reported paleomagnetic study completed within this unit. Terrane trajectories calculated using the finite rotation poles of Engebretson et al. (1985), which are corrected for either Pacific-hotspot drift or True Polar Wander hotspot-spin axis relative motion, show that the sampled unit represents a far traveled tectonostratigraphic terrane and support a model in which accretion (docking) events of this composite or superterrane with the North America plate occur at approximately 40 Ma.

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