A new fold test for palaeomagnetic studies

Previous techniques for judging the significance of a palaeomagnetic fold test are either invalid or insufficiently flexible. It is shown that under appropriate circumstances an isolated-observation test may be added to the range of statistical tests used to judge a fold test. A powerful new test is developed based on a test statistic that is sensitive to correlation between the distribution of site-mean directions about the overall mean direction and the tectonic corrections. This test is sufficiently flexible that it should cover most circumstances.