Paleomagnetism of the Franklin Diabases

Diabase intrusions, which have a probable mean age of 675 m.y., occur in a giant arc across the northern part of the Canadian Shield. They have a paleomagnetic pole position of 167° E, 8° N (α95 = 5°), and at least one reversal. The paleomagnetic results indicate that the northern Canadian Shield was near the equator at the time of intrusion, and this is in agreement with evidence of warm conditions of deposition found in erosional remnants of related late Proterozoic sediments. Some of the diabase, near the shores of Davis Strait, may have been partially remagnetized during the opening of Baffin Bay in the early Tertiary.