Paleomagnetism of the Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks of the Shimaoshan Group in Yongtai County, Fujian Province

It has been debated whether there was southward movement of the South China Block （SCB） during the Cretaceous. In this study, a paleomagnetic investigation was carried out on the Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks （88 Ma） of the Shimaoshan Group in Yongtai County, Fujian Province. Rock magnetic experiments showed that magnetite in pseudo-single-domain and multi-domain grain and hematite were predominant magnetic phases. Stepwise thermal demagnetization successfully isolated characteristic directional components at high-temperature interval （>500°C） from 383 specimens in 19 sites, which yielded a paleomagnetic pole for the studied section at 83.1°N, 152.6°E （N=19, A 95=3.9°）, and the scatter S B=9.0. The Fisher distribution of virtual geomagnetic poles （VGPs） and the consistence of S B with the expected value at the 95% confidence level indicate that the yielded paleomagnetic pole is free of paleomagnetic secular variation influence. The new pole, which is well consistent with that from the Eurasian apparent polar wander path （APWP） curve, suggests no obvious southward movement of the sampling site during the Cretaceous.