Tectonic Evolution During the Mesozoic
The Tectonic Evolution of North America During the Mesozoic Era
By
Limit your sources. The majority of your research should come from your Levin textbook.
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5 Major Events
Listed after this slide are 5 events of the Mesozoic. You may research the events listed for you OR choose different events that interest you. You must describe the event and include geologic evidence that this event occurred, typically rocks or soil created during the event. Page numbers in this section refer to Levin’s The Earth Through Time 10th ed. Any sources used must be included in your presentation with in-text citations and an entry in the Works Cited slide at the end of the presentation.
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Breakup of Pangaea
Evidence in the rock record for each event,
Paleogeographic interpretations for North America during this time,
Observations/evidence that support these paleogeographic interpretations.
Example of an event slide that would earn all points.
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Sonoma Orogeny
Evidence in the rock record for each event,
Paleogeographic interpretations for North America during this time,
Observations/evidence that support these paleogeographic interpretations.
See pgs 285-287
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Nevadan Orogeny
As Ganne & Feng (2018) state, the Nevadan orogeny was the first major Orogenic event which occurred on the other side of North America after the Pangaea breakup. It was caused by the western movement of the North American plate leading up to the thrusting of the oceanic crust along a subduction trench.
The formation of the vast Late Jurassic batholiths like the Coastal range batholith and the Sierra Nevada Batholith and of early Cretaceous batholiths is an evidence of the occurrence of the Nevadan Orogeny (Lynds & Xie, 2019).
See pages 291-296
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Sevier Orogeny
The Sevier Orogeny followed as the second orogeny occurring much further inland and being more widespread than the Nevadan Orogeny. According to Giallorenzo et al. (2018), it was caused by the subduction of the Farallon plate underneath the continental North American Plate. Mountain building followed crustal thickening which was caused by combining the compressive forces and the conductive healing which were initiated by the subduction. This led to deformation.
The Sevier Orogenic belt of the North American Rocky Mountains which is characterized by thin skinned deformation can be used as evidence. The deformation affected Jurassic-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks and it occurred between 130 Ma and 50 Ma which was around the estimated time the Sevier Orogenic event happened (Chapman et al. , 2020).
See pg 320
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Laramide Orogeny
The Laramide Orogeny was the third orogeny that occurred in the late Mesozoic era overlapping with the second Orogenic event but is distinct from it. It was caused by the subduction of the Farallon Plate just as the Sevier Orogeny but the deformation style was different. The deformation was more recent, took place further to the east and was deeper in the crust as it was driven from beneath (Carrapa et al.2019).
Evidences for the Laramide Orogeny consist of the great east-ward directed thrust faults and folds found in the Eastern portion of the Cordilleran Geosyncline from Nevada northward to British Columbia as stated by (Chapman et al., 2018).
Paleogeography of the Mesozoic
In this section, you will describe the paleogeography of the Mesozoic. Maps have been included for you. You must interpret the maps. All images in this section were obtained from Levin’s The Earth Through Time 10th ed. Please see the Ordovician example.
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Triassic, pg 388
Jurassic, pg 391
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Cretaceous, pg 396
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Works Cited
Levin, Harold. The Earth Through Time. 10th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2013. Print.