Vaalbara Palaeomagnetism

Vaalbara is the name given to a proposed configuration of continental blocks—the Kaapvaal craton (southern Africa) and the Pilbara craton (north-western Australia)—thought to be the Earth’s oldest supercraton assemblage. Its temporal history is poorly defined, but it has been suggested that it was stable for at least 400 million years, between 3.1 and 2.7 Ga. Here, we present an updated analysis that shows that the existence of a single supercraton between ∼2.9 and ∼2.7 Ga is inconsistent with the available palaeomagnetic data.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author