Abstract Two characteristic remanence magnetization directions (A and B components) were isolated in 48 sites along a traverse extending from the central Tennessee mining district to the Illinois-Kentucky mining district. Both components are younger than the depositional ages of the rocks sampled., There is a trend from A to B on going from southeast to northwest along the transect. The A component, found mostly in the Tennessee part of the transect, has a mean of declination (D)= 157.2°, inclination (I)= 4.4°, radius of 95% confidence (α 95 ) = 3.0°, precision parameter (κ)=99. This corresponds to a pole position, after reversing to its antipodal position, at 126.9° E, 46.1° N (δp=1.5°, δm=3.0°)(Fisher, 1953) that falls on the Permian, Kiaman Reversed Superchron portion of the North American apparent polar wander path. The magnetization in these rocks is probably coeval with regional pervasive dolomitization in the area. The A component was acquired over a period of no less than 7 Ma. The B component was seen in the northwest section of the transect and is much younger than A. Its mean of D=357.2°, I=64.1°, α 95 =3.7°, κ=82, using Fisher (1953) statistics corresponds to a pole position at 101.6° W and 81.4° N (δp=4.7°, δm=4.9°) which is virtually identical to the short-term present Earth's magnetic field suggesting that it was acquired over the last several thousand years or less. The magnetite retaining this component was too stable to be rejected as spontaneous viscous overprinting so an additional, as yet undefined, fluid remobilizing event must have occurred in this part of the transect. No evidence of a magnetization matching the Jurassic direction previously seen in the fluorspar ores of the Illinois-Kentucky mining district was found.

Abstract Apaleomagnetic study was conducted on more than 500 specimens from 43 sites in Mississippi Valley-type ore, hydrothermal dolomite and Paleozoic carbonate host rock from the central Tennessee zinc mining district. While several sites obtained from pure crystal specimens of ore stage material proved too weak to be successfully measured, disseminated ores, ore stage hydrothermal dolomites and the remote host rocks all yielded useful paleomagnetic data. Rock magnetic experiments indicate that magnetite is the remanence carrier of consequence in the collection. Five of the six host rock sites retained a late Paleozoic magnetization that is identical to previously published regional host rock directions for Paleozoic units in Tennessee, showing that all of these units were remagnetized in Permian time. Combining fourteen sites from partially mineralized rocks, hydrothermal dolomite, early and late breccias, a population mean of Dec.=168.8°, Inc.=3.7°, α95 =3.5°, κ =128 was obtained., This corresponds to a pole position at 110.5° E, 49.8° N (δp=1.8°, δm=3.5°), which falls on the Permo-Triassic boundary of the North American apparent polar wander path. It is slightly younger than the remagnetization age of the host rocks suggesting that the ore stage material carries a syn-mineralization remanence and thus it is recording the age of mineralization in the central Tennessee district. The results of this stody indicate that the central Tennessee zinc district is not related to the nearby east Tennessee zinc or Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar districts. The elongate distribution of the site means of ore-stage material was described using Bingham (1974) statistics. They indicate that the elongation is the product of apparent polar wander during acquisition of the magnetization as the deposit was forming over a period of 8 to 13 million years.