Towards a more certain reconstruction of Gondwanaland

Abstract

In the absence of identified magnetic anomalies in the southernmost Atlantic and Indian Oceans, palaeomagnetic data provide the most precise test of the initial relative positions of East and West Gondwanaland, with an uncertainty of about 10°. Two models are presented which lie within this uncertainty, but which have very different consequences for the initial position of the Antarctic Peninsula and the evolution of the Weddell Sea. Consideration of these models and their evolution shows that, in turn, a combination of mid-Jurassic palaeomagnetic data from the Peninsula and knowledge of Weddell Sea magnetic lineations should indicate the initial relative positions of East and West Gondwanaland.