Paleomagnetic study of late Miocene through Pleistocene igneous rocks from the southwestern USA: Results from the historic collections of the U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park laboratory

Seventy sites from the southwestern United States provide paleomagnetic results that meet certain minimum criteria and can be considered for the Time‐Averaged Field Initiative (TAFI). The virtual geomagnetic poles for these 70 units are circularly distributed, and their mean is nearly coincident with the rotational axis. When other published data for the southwestern United States are included (N = 146), the virtual geomagnetic poles are again circularly distributed, but their mean is significantly displaced from the rotational axis. Whichever of these data sets is used, the mean poles for normal‐ and reversed‐polarity data differ by ∼170° and are not antipodal at greater than 95% confidence. When the data are separated into specific age groups, the 95% confidence limits about the mean poles for the Brunhes, Matuyama, combined Gauss/Gilbert, and late Miocene intervals all include the rotational axis. Angular dispersion about these four mean poles increases systematically with increasing age and is consistent with paleosecular variation Model “G.”