Paleomagnetic evidence of large fault displacement around the Po basin—Reply

Reappraisal of paleomagnetic data from Gargano (South Italy)

“…A paleomagnetic study of the Upper Cretaceous bauxite occurrences in Campania and Southern Gargano (Table II, Channel1 and Tarling, 1975) revealed for the latter only four usable sites and the interpretation was even more com- Table I). However, the mean value of the Late Cretaceous data from all southern Italy (Table II) calculated by VandenBerg and Wonders (1979) using strict reliability criteria, is in perfect accordance with the present Late Cretaceous result, but differs significantly with the Early Cretaceous result (see Table I). The conclusion seems justified that the rather high scatter on site level of the earlier study by Channel1 (1977) has negatively influenced the results.…”

“…Despite the low intensities of the NRM (10-100 PA/m), all samples (268) The present research was undertaken to check the validity of earlier geodynamic interpretations, which were mainly based on paleomagnetic data (Channel1 et al, 1979;VandenBerg, 1979aVandenBerg, , 1979b and Tarling, 1975;Channell, 1977;VandenBerg and Wonders, 1979). Fig.…”

“…The a95 values (Table I) (1977) had given too much weight to the paleomagnetic data from Gargano by using site-mean results which had an a95 of more than or equal to 20' for computation of the overall mean value. Actually VandenBerg and Wonders (1979) showed that if more severe reliability criteria are applied (CQ~ I 15') the paleomagnetic data from southern Italy are not significantly different from those of northwestern Umbria, and hence led to a completely opposite interpretation (VandenBerg, 1979a(VandenBerg, , 1979b. The major problem in the interpretation of the paleomagnetic data from Gargano arised from the fact that the exact age of the Upper Cretaceous limestones is not very accurately known.…”