Late Permian paleomagnetic results from the Lodève, Le Luc, and Bas-Argens Basins (southern France): Magnetostratigraphy and geomagnetic field morphology

•Magnetostratigraphy of two sections in the Permian of southern France is established.•They span the end of the Permo-Carboniferous Reversed Superchron.•The corresponding paleopoles, combined with published data, support the GAD model. Paleomagnetic results are presented from 271 stratigraphically-ordered horizons at four locations in southern France. Our focus is mainly on the Late Permian (258 horizons), but results from 13 horizons in the Triassic Buntsandstein are also reported. We argue that the Permian results extend magnetostratigraphic coverage up to the upper Capitanian Stage, some 6 million years after the end of the Permo-Carboniferous Reversed Superchron defined by the Illawarra Reversal in the Wordian Stage. When combined with published data, an overall mean paleopole at 49°N, 161°E (A95=4°, N=9) is obtained. This is virtually identical to the upper Permian pole obtained by Bazhenov and Shatsillo (2010) using the intersecting great-circle method. Agreement between the two procedures, which are based on entirely independent data, supports the geocentric axial dipole (GAD) model.