This award will fill a critical gap in Pacific apparent polar wander through analysis of the skewness of profiles recording Vine- Matthews magnetic anomalies. The PI will combine together skewness data using a new method that has developed to solve simultaneously for the paleomagnetic pale latitude, longitude and their 95% confidence limits, and anomalous skewness and its 95% confidence limits that best fit the data in a maximum-likelihood, least- squares sense. She will analyze the skewness of Pacific anomalies 12r-24r (32-57 Ma). These data will fill a large gap in paleomagnetic data for the critical interval preceding the elbow in the Hawaiian-Emperor chain and spanning the major plate reorganization during chrons 21-25. She will use the results to further constrain the timing and rate of southward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot relative to the paleomagnetic axis, to construct a detailed chronology of anomalous skewness, to test alternative plate reconstructions, and to investigate the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis.
