Paleomagnetism of upper carboniferous and lower permian deposits of the East European platform: A key paleomagnetic pole and kinematics of collision with the Urals

Collections of Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian rocks from five sections in the East European platform (the Donets Basin, Arctic, North and South Urals, and northern Timan Region) were studied. Data on the Donets Basin red clays of the Asselian stage of the Lower Permian (Kartamysh Formation) provided a key paleomagnetic pole with the parameters N/n = 24/43, Phi = 43.3degrees N, Lambda = 163.8degrees E, dp = 1.7degrees, dm = 3.2degrees. Paleomagnetic directions from the remaining sections under study were affected by secondary tectonic processes, mainly thrusting events that took place during the last phase of the collision between the East European platform and the Urals. To allow for this evidence, corrections for local rotations were introduced into the data, after which they could be analyzed jointly with paleomagnetic determinations available from the global paleomagnetic database. The kinematic parameters of the East European platform motion in the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian were estimated. This motion can be described by a rotation of the platform around a (39.1degrees N, 300.4degrees E) pole through an angle of (12 +/- 6)degrees.