MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY AND PALYNOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPIAN-PENNSYLVANIAN BOUNDARY INTERVAL IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA AND THE STRATIGRAPHIC POSITION OF THE BEGINNING OF THE KIAMEN

Paleomagnetic data from the Maritimes Basin in eastern Canada reveal patterns of magnetic stratigraphy through approximately 12 ma of late Mississippian and early Pennsylvanian time. Polarity reversal patterns recorded in three sections on Cape Breton Island and a fourth from a deep cored well on Prince Edward island are presented and correlated with those from the lower parts of the Joggins section in New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia. All sections are constrained by new palynological data. Mississippian sections collectively span the Brigantian, Pendleian and much of the Arnsbergian substages. Published data for the Mauch Chunk Formation of the U.S.A., representing sections more than 1500 kilometers southeast of the Maritimes Basin, are correlated to polarity reversal patterns for the Brigantian, Pendleian and early to mid- Arnsbergian in the central Appalachian basin. An early Langsettian position for the base of the Kiaman superchron is indicated by these new data