Figure 1.
Paleocontinental reconstructions bracketing the Jurassic polar shift: in left panel, reconstructions at 160 Ma (light gray shading) and 145 Ma (dark gray shading); in right panel, reconstructions at 145 Ma (light gray shading; same as in left panel) and 120 Ma (dark gray shading). The Euler pole (E) for rotating the continental assemblage clockwise from 160 to 145 Ma and counterclockwise from 145 to 120 Ma is located on the equator in the vicinity of the Bight of Benin of western Africa. The stars connected by arrows indicate the sites discussed in the text: Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, Neuqén in Argentina, and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Green latitudinal belts represent the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) within ±5° equator and the temperate humid belts, whereas the arid belts encompass the tropics up to ±30° latitude (modified from Kent et al., 2015).