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Tropical Westerlies Over Pangaean Sand Seas, David B. Loope, Maureen B. Steiner, Clinton M. Rowe, Nicholas Lancaster
Tropical Westerlies Over Pangaean Sand Seas, David B. Loope, Maureen B. Steiner, Clinton M. Rowe, Nicholas Lancaster
David B. Loope
Cross-equatorial, westerly winds are key features of tropical circulation in monsoonal regions. Although prominent in numerical climate models of Pangaea (the supercontinent straddling earth’s equator, Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic), such flow has not been confirmed previously by migration directions of ancient dunes. Windblown sandstones that span 100 million years of earth history are widely exposed in south-western USA. If recent paleomagnetic data from the Colorado Plateau are used to correct Mesozoic paleogeographic maps, the Plateau is placed about 10° further south than previously assumed, and the prevailing north-westerly surface winds recorded by dune-deposited sandstones are explicable as cross-equatorial westerlies …