Phanerozoic paleomagnetic poles from Europe and North America and comparisons with continental reconstructions

In over 30 years of paleomagnetic research, the available paleomagnetic pole determinations from North America and Europe have become much more abundant and, especially, more reliable. While it was still possible in the mid 1960s to conclude that the scatter in paleomagnetic poles made tests of continental reconstructions dubious and inconclusive at best, the data base now allows a much better resolution. For this study, paleomagnetic poles from the stable interiors of North America and Europe have been compiled with a quality index (0 ≤ Q ≥ 7) based on seven reliability criteria, with the purpose to test continental reconstruction parameters for closing the North Atlantic Ocean. An appropriate geographic and temporal data selection (with Q ≥ 3) allows a direct comparison of mean paleopoles for the entire interval of Ordovician through Early Jurassic with various Europe‐North America continental reconstructions published by Bullard and colleagues, Herron and colleagues, Le Pichon and colleagues, Sclater and colleagues, Srivastava and Tapscott, Savostin and colleagues, and Rowley and Lottes. The European set of mean paleopoles compares most favorably with those of North America in the fit of Bullard and colleagues. Using the best fit reconstruction, a common apparent polar wander path has been constructed for Europe and North America, which can serve as a reference path for analysis of displaced terrane motions. I conclude from this study that for the continents bordering the North Atlantic the paleopole data base has become fairly robust, that tight fits such as those by Bullard and colleagues are in superior agreement with the paleomagnetic data, and that the combined paleomagnetic North America‐Europe data set is apparently not affected by significant long‐term, nonzonal, nondipole fields.