Sem/stem Observations of Magnetite in Carbonates of Easte• North America: Eviden• for Chemical Remagnetization during the Allegi•nian Orogeny

. Early to middle Paleozoic arbonates ofeastern North America have been pervasively remagnetized. In order to determine the process of remagnetization, scanning and scanning transmission electron microscopy have been used to characterize magnetite in thin sections and in concentrated separates. Samples included Ordovician Knox carbonates from east Tennessee, Ordovician Trenton limestone and Devonian Onondaga and Helderberg limestones from New York, and Ordovician Trenton carbonates from Michigan. Inclusions of authigenic minerals within magnetite grains, lack of cations other than iron, and a variety of textural relations all imply that the magnetite is authigenic. These data are consistent with estimates that palcotemperatures never exceeded values that would reset magnetic directions. The remagnetization is thus a chemical remanent magnetization (CRM) rather than viscous remanent magnetization (VRM). As the timing of remagnetization corresponds to the Al!eghenian orogeny, the observed relations imply stressinduced crystallization of magnetite that was mediated by fluids, consistent with but not requiring fluid flow on a regional basis.