APPARENT POLAR WANDER PATH SMOOTHING WITH SPHERICAL SPLINES

Apparent Polar Wander Curve Smoothing is addressed once again. The association of a suitable mapping from the sphere to the plane and spline smoothing parameterized by ages, known for some years and already used by several authors is the latest of a variety of methods. This study is devoted to its application, complemented with statistical aspects, and extended to parameterization by arclength in order to incorporate poorly dated poles. We also emphasize the connection with other modelling methods. The technique is applied to the European Apparent Polar Wander Path as an example.