November 30, 2009 BReading Ch. 14 BFinal Exam date: TU, Dec. 15 Monster worm and sea star frenzy Deep under the Antarctic ice, a rare, colourful burst of starfish and 3m-long monster worms has been filmed by a BBC camera crew. Filmed in time-lapse, the extraordinary swarm of deep-sea creatures gathers to feed in a frenzy on the body of a seal, which had sunk to the ocean floor. Such a bounty of food may only occur once every ten years in the ice-cold waters of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The images were taken by divers filming for the natural history series Life. The time-lapse sequence revealed the feeding frenzy of hundreds of huge worms, starfish, brittle stars and sea-urchins.

Refresher…late Paleozoic BGeology Absaroka transgression Cratonic deformation  Ouachita belt –Ancestral Rockies  Alleghanian orogeny –Final Appalachian Formation of Pangea BLife Marine  Major carbonate reefs  Ray finned fishes, sharks Terrestrial  primitive gymnosperms  Insects (arthropods)  Amphibians and first reptiles Permian extinction

Mesozoic Era BTime frame mya BAge of Reptiles BBreakup of Pangea

Breakup of Pangea BOccurred late Triassic through Cretaceous N. America and Africa split Greenland and Europe split BNewark rifts Stretching crust Basalt injections  The Palisades, NJ Palisades (basaltic sill)

eruptions East African Rift Valley

BWeathering of uplifted regions Newark Supergroup  Red, non-marine sediments BFormation of aulacogens Basins bounded by faults Breakup of Pangea Reptile tracks, CT

Breakup of Pangea BNorth Atlantic Ocean basin Rapidly widening BGulf of Mexico Restricted basin Evaporite deposition  LA salt domes  Petroleum traps BChalk deposition White Cliffs of Dover

Interior Craton BRed sediments transported west Moenkopi Formation BQuartz sands deposited Navajo Sandstone, UT Flaming Gorge, WY Moenkopi Fn Chinle Fn Wingate Sandstone Navajo Sandstone, UT

Interior Craton BChanges in sea level Sundance Formation Sundance Fn, WY Gypsum Springs, CO Dinosaur National Park, UT BErosion of western highlands Morrison Formation

Cordillera Belt BWestern margin activity intensified BMost of western margin is ‘foreign’ suspect and exotic terranes  Ex: Wrangell Mts, AK

Sonoma Orogeny BIsland arc collision Forearc basin (Great Valley Grp)  Volcanic & ocean sediments Accretionary prism (Fransciscan Cx)  blueschists Foreland basin (Morrison Fmn)  Volcanic & terrestrial sediments