Paleomagnetism of some carboniferous glacial varves from central Africa

Samples have been collected at five sites from Dwyka (Carboniferous) glacial varves in Rhodesia, Zambia, and southern Tanzania. The samples were, in general, weakly magnetized, and after thermal cleaning the directions form close groups at each site although a number of samples became too weak to be measured and had to be discarded. On restoring the strata to the horizontal at each site, the directions become steeply magnetized and a significant improvement in the grouping of the site poles is noted. The pole position for these varves is calculated to lie in South Africa at 26½°S, 26½°E with A95 = 10½°. Permo-Carboniferous poles from Africa and Australia are shown to be consistent with King's reconstruction of Gondwanaland, and they confirm the upper Paleozoic polar movement from west to east across Gondwanaland. This agreement is, however, only possible if the Dwyka series is assigned to the Lower rather than Upper Carboniferous and if some of the K3 beds in the Karroo succession in southern Tanzania are Upper Carboniferous rather than Lower Permian.