A Paleocene North American paleomagnetic pole incorporating declination‐Only data

A problem in determining apparent polar wander paths for the continents is how to incorporate the valid declinations from paleomagnetic studies that have measured shallowly biased inclinations (i.e. inclination error). It is proposed that in such cases pole positions and confidence limits be determined using a method previously applied only to paleomagnetic data from oceanic plates. Applying this method to paleomagnetic data from 67‐55 Ma rocks of North America, a paleomagnetic pole, 78.7°N, 185.1°E, and 95% confidence ellipse, 6.0° major semiaxis striking 105° clockwise from north and minor semiaxis of 3.7°, were determined. An analysis of the information content of the data shows that the single declination‐only datum, from the Nacimiento Formation (New Mexico), contains 31% of the information, which would have been wasted by conventional paleomagnetic analysis if excluded or caused a bias if the inclination had also been included.