Conglomerate test alternative hypotheses in paleomagnetism

All known modifications of the uniformity test for unit vectors on a sphere, utilized in the conglomerate test (which is one of the field tests widely used in paleomagnetology), are considered. Almost all test modifications examine the null hypothesis that vectors are uniformly distributed on a sphere. However, when the conglomerate (uniformity) test is performed, it is important to formulate an alternative hypothesis, which substantially affects (see the paper) the test sensitivity (power) and, thus, is responsible for its reliability. An analysis of the known modifications of the test for vector uniformity on a sphere made it possible to determine the succession of procedures that should be included in the conglomerate test.