Palaeomagnetism of the British carboniferous system

Abstract

Superficially conflicting evidence has been found concerning the direction and sense of the earth's magnetic field in carboniferous times. Various explanations of the results are considered here. We conclude that the discrepancies in direction occur because some sites underwent secondary rumagrietization during the Triassic period. If this hypothesis is correct, the mean direction for the Carboniferous period was 200[ddot] east of true north and 27[ddot] down; placing Britain 15[ddot] south of the equator. As regards the sense of the field we conclude that it probably underwent a rapid series of inversions in the early part of the Carboniferous period and then remained reversed for a considerable time.