Palaeomagnetism and the early magmatic history of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands)

Thermal and alternating field demagnetization combined with studies of the convergence points of remagnetization circles have been carried out on a variety of rocks from Fuerteventura. The older (post-Albian) rocks, including the basement plutonics, the sheeted dike complex and the earliest subaerial lava sequence (lava Series I), have a multicomponent remanence while the younger lava Series II of Miocene/Pliocene age has dominantly a one-component magnetization. Comparison of the results with recent palaeomagnetic data from Gran Canaria/Tenerife and with results from continental Africa and Europe suggest a late Cretaceous origin of the basal intrusive rocks while the subaerial volcanism (lava Series I) most likely initiated at around the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. This implies that there is a nearly 50-m.y.-long period of volcanic quiescence and erosion between lava Series I and lava Series II. The apparent contradiction between these conclusions and the few K/Ar dates available is discussed.           ARK: https://n2t.net/ark:/88439/y082688 Permalink: https://geophysicsjournal.com/article/281 &nbsp