Science, Vol.277, No.5332, 1642-1645, 1997
Measurements of the Cretaceous Paleolatitude of Vancouver-Island - Consistent with the Baja British-Columbia Hypothesis
A previously unsampled outcrop of gently dipping or fiat-lying Upper Cretaceous sedimentary strata in the Vancouver Island region, which contains unaltered aragonitic mollusk fossils, yielded a stable remanent magnetization that is biostratigraphically consistent with Cretaceous magnetochrons 33R, 33N, and 32R. These results, characterized by shallow inclinations, indicate an Upper Cretaceous paleolatitude of about 25 +/- 3 degrees north, which is equivalent to that of modern-day Baja California. These findings are consistent with the Baja-British Columbia hypothesis, which puts the Insular Superterrane well south of the Oregon-California border in the Late Cretaceous.
Keywords:WESTERN NORTH-AMERICA;COAST BELT;PALEOMAGNETIC EVIDENCE;CALIFORNIA;DISPLACEMENT;TRANSLATION;EVOLUTION;BEARING;COMPLEX;BASINS