Palaeomagnetic correlation of the Upper Triassic of Somerset, England, with continental Europe and eastern North America

Journal article

Three Normal and three Reversed palaeomagnetic polarity zones were identified in the exposed 67 m section of Mercia Mudstone at St Audrie's Bay, Somerset, which has been regarded as being of Norian age on limited biostratigraphic evidence. The polarity sequence is correlated with magnetozones E15 to E17 in the Newark Basin, New Jersey, further supporting the inferred Norian age and tentatively placing it in the mid-Norian. Correlations with the northern North Sea and the Alps are also suggested. Results from Doniford Bay, where tectonic dips are steeper but which cannot be correlated precisely with the St Audrie's section, are incorporated for the calculation of the mean direction of Characteristic Remanent Magnetization which has declination 30.8° and inclination +34°.

• Publisher: Geological Society Publishing House on behalf of the Geological Society of London
• Journal: Journal of the Geological Society
• Issue: 156
• Publication date: 1999-01-01
• DOI: 10.1144/gsjgs.156.2.0317
• ISSN: 0016-7649
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Earth sciences