Using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility to better constrain the tilt correction in paleomagnetism: A case study from southern Peru

Abstract

We report a combined study of anisotropy of low field magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and paleomagnetism from 16 sites in a sedimentary sequence of Eocene–early Oligocene red beds in southern Peru. Incipient tectonic strain is recorded during the early stages of deformation. Nonhorizontal magnetic lineation in geographic coordinate suggests either noncylindrical folding and/or interference of two phases of compressive deformation and tectonic rotation. Applying the classic tilt correction results in significant dispersion in paleomagnetic declinations and apparent clockwise and counterclockwise relative tectonic rotations. A dispersion in the orientation of the magnetic lineation also arises from a simple classic tilt correction inducing apparent local rotation in paleostress determination. The magnetic lineation is a good proxy to detect a complex history of folding when the finite strain is not large enough to reset the magnetic fabric acquired during the early stages of deformation and when detailed geological field mapping is not available or not possible. In the present study, a double correction rotating first the lineation to the horizontal reduces significantly the dispersion of the paleomagnetic data with respect to conventional tilt correction (Fisher parameter k increases from 14 to 35). The interest of this double correction must obviously be evaluated for each study according to the complexity of the folding and the intensity of the deformation. Assuming a mean age of 40 Ma for the sedimentary sequence, no significant rotation (-4.5° ± 8.4) is observed in this area of the Peruvian Andes.