|MadSci Network: Earth Sciences|
"In the past, the geologists examining ancient rocks (paleomagnetism) assumed the continents did not move so the magnetic north pole APPEARED to be moved, hence this is called apparent polar wander. When the continents are considered to be moving (RATHER THAN THE POLE), the PATHWAYS correspond." [A quote from a text book] [My quetsion]When they considered the continents move instead of the pole moving, the pathways correspond...but the last sentence in the quote confuses me. It says that scientists consider that the continents are moving instead of the magnetic pole (ie consider the change in position and orientation of the continents), and this gives a perfect match of the apparent polar wander paths for different continents (North America and Europe, for example), but as they consider that the magnetic pole is not moving, why are there still pathways of polar wander? Is this the real MAGNETIC polar wander--the movement of the magnetic pole with respect to the geographic pole, which is considered stationary at most times?)
Re: apparent polar wander becomes magnetic polar wander?
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