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Late Paleozoic Earth History
Chapter 11 Late Paleozoic Earth History
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Appalachians are built North America is formed
Catskill Delta in NY is deposited Coal formation is widespread Limited transgression; reefs and basins Supercontinent forms Climate change occurs
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Gondwana Continental Glaciers
Gondwana continued moving over the South Pole Major glacial episodes: Late Mississippian to Early Permian Continental glaciers profoundly affected the world's biota and global sea level changes
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Continental glaciers or ice Sheets are always over land masses!
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Continental Collisions
Collisions between continents formation of supercontinent Pangaea by the end of the Permian, mountain building influenced oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns By the end of the Paleozoic, widespread arid and semiarid conditions had prevailed over much of Pangaea
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The Devonian Period During the Silurian (early paleozoic),
Laurentia and Baltica collided larger continent of Laurasia Northern Iapetus Ocean closed: Caledonian orogeny During the Devonian, Southern Iapetus Ocean narrowed between Laurasia and Gondwana, Acadian orogeny
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Late Devonian Period
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Early Carboniferous Period
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Late Carboniferous Period
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Late Permian Period
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Evidence of Acadian Orogeny: “Old Red Sandstone” Reddish Fluvial Sediments formed during the Devonian Age The erosion of the resulting highlands from the Acadian Orogeny provided Old Red Sandstone covered large areas of northern Europe and eastern North America Evidence: the Catskill Delta, Scotland and others
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Catskill Delta red sandstone beds are exposed in NY/PA
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Old Red Sandstone in Europe
Scotland
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Catskill Delta Clastic Wedge
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Devonian Rocks of New York
The Devonian rocks of New York are among the best studied on the continent A cross section of the Devonian strata clearly reflects an eastern source for the Catskill facies from the Acadian Highlands These clastic rocks can be traced from eastern Pennsylvania, where the coarse clastics are approximately 3 km thick, to Ohio, where the deltaic facies are only about 100 m thick and consist of cratonic shales and carbonates
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Avalonia: microcontinent on the move
composed of coastal parts of New England, southern New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, eastern Newfoundland, southeastern Ireland, Wales, England, --Belgium and Northern France **later rifting took this land to present locations
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Acadian Orogeny
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Acadian Orogeny
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Acadian Orogeny
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2800 feet of sediment on eastern margin
Marcellus Shale Devonian marine facies Natural gas reserves
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Before Pangaea…. Uniform global climate throughout the world, reefs,
evaporites, and red beds, throughout the world,
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The Carboniferous Period: Mississippian & Pennsylvanian
The advance and retreat of Gondwana’s polar glaciers produced global changes in sea level and affected sedimentation pattern on the cratons As Gondwana moved northward it first collided with Laurasia during the Early Carboniferous and continued suturing with it during the rest of the Carboniferous
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Closing of the Iapetus Ocean
The Taconic, Caledonian, and Acadian orogenies were all part of the same Paleozoic orogenic event closing of the Iapetus Ocean Laurentia and Baltica became sutured as Laurasia
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Early Carboniferous Period
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Late Carboniferous Period
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Gondwana/Laurasia Collision
Evidence: Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma Late Carboniferous and Early Permian By the end of the Carboniferous, the various continental landmasses were fairly close together as Pangaea began taking shape
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Paleogeography of the World
For the Late Permian Period
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Carboniferous Coal Basins
The Carboniferous coal basins of eastern North America, western Europe, all lay in the equatorial zone, where rainfall was high and temperatures were consistently warm The absence of strong seasonal growth rings in fossil plants from these coal basins is indicative of such a climate
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What Are Cyclothems? A cyclical pattern of alternating marine and nonmarine strata Characteristic of Pennsylvanian rocks usually in areas of low relief
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U.S. Coal Deposits The age of the coals in the midwestern states and the Appalachian region are mostly Pennsyl-vanian whereas those in the west are mostly Cretaceous and Cenozoic
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Cyclothem Columnar section of a complete cyclothem
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Pennsylvanian Coal Bed
Pennsylvanian coal bed, West Virginia part of a cyclothem
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Coal-Forming Swamp Reconstruction of the environment of a Pennsylvanian coal-forming swamp
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The Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, is a modern coal-forming environment,
similar to those occurring during the Pennsylvanian Period
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Pennsylvanian Period Paleogeography of North America during the Pennsylvanian Period
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Modern coal forming environments
the Mississippi delta, the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia the Florida Everglades, and the Dutch lowlands similar to those that existed during the Pennsylvanian Period
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The Permian
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Permian Period Paleogeography of North America during the Permian Period
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Restricted Absaroka Sea
west Texas and southern New Mexico, lagoonal environments, reef environments, and open-shelf environments Permian Basins form
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Permian Reefs and Basins
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Capitan Limestone Reef Reconstruction
Reconstruction Middle Permian Capitan Limestone reef environment brachiopods, corals, bryozoans and large glass sponges
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Pangaea Surrounded An enormous single ocean,
Panthalassa, surrounded Pangaea and spanned Earth from pole to pole arid and semiarid conditions were widespread over Pangaea The mountain ranges produced by the Alleghenian, and Ouachita orogenies created rain shadows
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The stage is set for Earth’s greatest mass extinction
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