Evolution of the APWP for Gondwana: constraints based on the geology of eastern Australia

The many iterations of the APWP for Gondwana over the past 40 years will be reviewed. They involve all the uncertainties that challenge the determination of the correct record: nature of NRM; age and correlation; geography and history of tectonic units etc. Most arguments about the Paleozoic section of this path depend upon the interpretation of results from the various terranes of eastern Australia. The two extreme views are either that none of the results from eastern Australia can be used for APWP definition or that all of them can be used. The terrane geology of eastern Australia is now reasonably well known and the paleomagnetic results can be placed in an appropriate terrane concept. This suggests that the Molong-Monaro terrane, where most results come from, was certainly accreted to the main craton by the Middle Devonian and probably by the Early Devonian. Early Devonian palaemagnetric results from the north and south of eastern Australia confirm this to be the case. However, the often used Late Carboniferous results from glacial horizons in eastern Australia are from the New England Fold Belt, where accretion to the main craton may not have been completed until the Middle Triassic. Results from this region now also confirm this to be the case. Both the geological setting and paleomagnetic results now confirm that the South Pole APWP makes a rapid transition from North Africa to south of South Africa between the Late Ordovician (455 Ma) and the Early Devonian (405 Ma). This places Bolivia and adjacent regions of South America near the south pole in Silurian times, a position supported by sedimentological evidence for glaciation in Bolivia at that time. The pole then loops back across southwest Gondwana to reach central Africa by the Early Carboniferous.