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Chapter 13 sum
Mesozoic:
Pangea breakup- occurred during the Triassic, with Rifting and volcanism adjacent to normal faults.
North America separated from Gondwana, and Mexico separated from South America. Oceanic Basalts
are added to the Atlantic Ocean (newly forming). Narrow oceanic tracts between southern Africa and
Antarctica. Atlantic rift extends northward.
Eastern North America Mesozoic:
Appalachian range raised during the Allegheny orogeny (eroding rapidly). North America experienced
tensional force and rifting (separated continents). Sed. Traps received great thicknesses of poorly
sorted red arkosic sandstone and shales. Mud cracks and raindrop impressions (non-marine dep).
Newark sed dep., lava flows, spewed ashes. Mountains produced by rifting were reduced (erosion) Gulf
of Mexico and salt domes formed.
Calk period:
Cretaceous = high sea levels and epicon. seas. Atlantic Coastal Plain, erosion 100 million years since
the beginning of Mesoz
Carbonate reefs = rudistids- invertebrates that contributed their skeles to the reefs. Chalk upper
cretaceous sediments, White, fine-grained, and soft variety of limestone.
Western North America:
Crustal extension and North America separating from Europe and Africa, opposite in the west. North
America moved westward, and deformation in the west related to events in the east. (subduction
zones in the west). Volcanic arcs, fragments of distant continents, and oceanic plateaus.
Exotic terranes- more than 50 recognized in Cordillera and 70% of the total rock volume. Some are so
large they changed the shape of the subduction zones.
Obduction- rock rides up and over another.
Accretionary tectonics – growth of a continent by crustal fragments and exotic terranes
Orogenies:
Sonoma orogeny- eastward-moving volcanic arc collided with North America’s Pacific margin. Nevadan
orogeny- eastward-shifting, affecting far western Cordillera and then proceeding eastward to craton.
Sevier orogeny- east of Sierra Nevada Mountains, and affected shallow-water carbonates and
terrigenous clastics dep. (middle Jurassic and early Cenozoic) Laramide Orogeny- adjacent to the far
west of the North American plate and diminished towards the end of the Cretaceous.
Marine reptiles and Dinos in the Jurassic:
Late Triassic-early Jurassic: windblown sediments are well developed in Navajo. Some parts were water
deposits (Fossiliferous limestone and evaporites). Navajo is a large body of sand extending 500,000
square km and 500 m thick. Marine conditions were more widespread during the middle Jurassic; the
west was covered by a broad seaway (the Sundance sea = Sundance formation).
Tethys sea: powerful compressional forces as Africa moved northward. The Tethys seas began to close.
South America left Africa during the Jurassic and continued through the Mesozoic.
Greenhouse gases warmed the planet = high sea levels (transgressions and regressions in the late
Cretaceous epictinental seas, and two brief ocean anoxic events). These transgressions were the
greatest in the Mesozoic era.
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Foreland basin: North America's western dep basin receiving interior seds.
Dekota Group- sandstone beds from transgressive phases in the Cretaceous (along the eastern front).
Bentonite- Extensive beds in Cretaceous rocks of Wyoming and Colorado. Soft, plastic, and light
colored.