Paleomagnetism of the Clam Bank Formation and paleolatitude estimates for western Newfoundland

(N = 16 sites, k = 25.3, a,, = 7.5 "), with a corresponding paleopole at 23.2'N, 145.0°E (dp, dm = 4.S0, 8.2"); component B with D = 172.9", I = 5.7" (N = 35 specimens, k = 10.2, a,, = 6.4"), with a corresponding paleopole at 38.2"N, 130.1°E (dp, dm = 3.2", 6.4"); component C with D = 350.4', I = 69.8" (N = 33 specimens, k = 8.9, a9, = 8.9"). A pre-Mesozoic origin of the A and B components is indicated by the presence of normal and reversed components in specific sites; by the lack of correspondence between the A and B paleopoles and the Mesozoic and later pole positions from the Appalachians and the North American craton; and by agreement with Paleozoic poles from the region. The A component was probably acquired immediately after deformation during the Acadian orogeny. The B component is probably a chemical remanence that was acquired during Permo-Carboniferous (Kiaman) time. The C component is of recent origin, probably acquired in the present Earth's field. Paleomagnetic data from western Newfoundland are used in a localized setting to construct a paleopole sequence and to estimate paleolatitudes for western Newfoundland during the Paleozoic. Keeping in mind the paucity of data for Siluro-Devonian age from this region, western Newfoundland seems to have been at its southernmost position at the end of the Ordovician and to have occupied equatorial latitudes during the Permo-Carboniferous. The paleolatitude trend suggests that this block, which is part of the North American craton, moved in a southerly direction during the early Paleozoic and in a northerly direction during the middle and late Paleozoic.