| Appalachian Paleozoic redbed and plutonic rock units were sampled for paleomagnetic study in order to examine evidence for oroclinal rotation in the formation of the Pennsylvania salient, better define the middle Paleozoic latitudinal position of North America, and to better understand the late Paleozoic remagnetization event. The redbed units sampled in the central Appalachians were the late Ordovician Juniata Formation, late Silurian/early Devonian Andreas Redbeds, and the late Devonian Catskill Formation. These data were augmented by results from a set of Devonian plutons in New England which include the Black Mountain Granite and associated rocks from southern Vermont, the Hartland, Lexington, Center Pond, Chain of Ponds, Pleasant Lake, and Horserace units from Maine, and the Peekskill Granite located in southeastern New York.;The prefolding C magnetizations isolated in the redbeds show a declination discrepancy between the northern and southern limbs of the Pennsylvania salient, consistent with roughly half of the present change in structural trend of the salient having been acquired during Alleghenian deformation. The rotational history of the limbs of the salient with respect to the craton is not clear. The prefolding data from the Andreas redbeds and Pleasant Lake pluton are consistent with the interpretation that the Acadian orogeny resulted from collision of North and South America. The revised results from the Catskill no longer suggest that Acadia was offset from North America in the late Devonian.;A compilation of data representing the commonly observed late Paleozoic remagnetization documents a regional trend in the timing of the Appalachian remagnetization event, with the remagnetization being oldest in the southern Appalachians. These remagnetized components show promise as a valuable tool in delineating the structural history of orogenic belts.;The magnetization of the redbeds often consists of two well defined components, both of which are carried by hematite. The B component is unblocked from 300 to 650... |
