Effect of mobility of continents on the long wavelength potential field characteristics and paleoreconstructions

A joint study of the variation in the long wavelength magnetic and gravity field characteristics caused by slow or fast mobility of continent(s) can be useful in ascertaining the relative merit of the two fields for paleoreconstruction purposes. We examine this aspect by utilizing the available potential field signatures over India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Africa, North America, Australia, Tasmania and Antarctica since their dispersal from Gondwanaland. We find that while the gravity field is not quite correlatable in the case of geodynamically mobile continents, the magnetic field across them is largely correlatable. It is, thus, inferred that long wavelength magnetic anomalies may be preferred over gravity signatures for paleoreconstruction purposes, especially for continents with known high rate of mobility.