APPLICATION OF PALEOMAGNETISM TO PALEOCONTINENTAL RECONSTRUCTION

The reconstruction of paleocontinental pattern is one of the hot topics in global tectonic research, and the restoration of ancient position of continents remain the key to the reconstruction. So far paleomagnetism is the most effective method to provide reliable evidence for quantitative and semi-quantitative paleocontinental restoration. This paper provides a review on the progress of paleomagnetic method in the restoration of ancient continental position,including principles, sample collection, methods for calculation of paleolatitude and paleomagnetic poles and quality evaluation of paleomagnetic data. Two methods for restoration of the ancient continental location APWP and drift rotation are introduced and discussed.