Early Triassic paleomagnetic data from the Dolomites (Italy)

Prefolding high unblocking temperature magnetization components have been resolved from 28 sites of red siltstones from the Lower Triassic Werfen Formation in the Dolomites (Southern Alps). Site mean declinations are more scattered than site mean inclinations, indicating small-scale relative rotation among thrust sheets, particularly in the eastern part of the Dolomites affected by “Dinaric” (Paleogene) thrusting. Two sites from close to the Valsugana Line indicate large-scale (∼80°) anticlockwise rotation in this zone of Alpine sinistral transpression. The overall mean direction (number of sites (N) = 26, Declination = 331°, Inclination = 13°, α95 = 6.6°), excluding sites close to the Valsugana Line, gives a pole position (Latitude = 42°N, Longitude = 233°E, dp/dm = 3.4°/6.8°) which lies close to published Early Permian poles from the Southern Alps and to Permian and Early Triassic poles for Africa, implying very little net rotation of the Dolomites relative to Africa since Permian time.