Mesozoic through Cenozoic

What was happening back in the Western Cordillera?

All the stuff we already talked about plus….

Hawaii!

Pangaea breaks up

• Red beds, basalts and normal faults on East Coast• How do we know what other continent North

America broke away from? What is your evidence?

• fit of continents, fossils, paleomagnetic stripes on Atlantic floor, climate bands, paleomag on continent, glacial till etc., ancient mtns and rocks that run across the continent boundary

What’s happening in Europe and Asia?

• Look at the maps• Watch the animations• Alps?• India?• Mediterranean (maps)

Alps/ Himalaya

• As Africa and India move northward, they collide with Europe and Asia

• India forces SE Asia and China to the east as it pushes northward

• Creates SE Asian peninsulas, Sea of Japan and Tibetan Plateau as well as Himalayas

• Tethys closes and dries up, leaving a basin where the new Mediterranean sea floor forms. The Med fills as the Gibraltar end erodes through to the Atlantic

What’s happening to Central America?

• Animation

Cenozoic Glaciation• Extent of glaciation in N. America and Europe• Effect on world climate belts• Evidence for glaciation?• Glacial till – unsorted, angular• U-shaped valleys, horns, cirques, aretes• Glacial striations & polish• Moraines – piles of debris left as glacier melts• Erratics – large boulder carried by a glacier and

dropped as it melted• Dropstones – boulder dropped when iceberg

melts

Consequences of glaciation

• Glacial lakes and pluvial lakes

Kettle lakes in Minnesota

Pluvial lakes: formed from increased rainfall south of the glaciers

Consequences of glaciation

• Glacial lakes and pluvial lakes• Glacial deposits– Moraines and till– Glacial outwash – rock dust carried by meltwater– Loess (wind-blown rock dust)

Consequences of glaciation

• Glacial lakes and pluvial lakes• Glacial deposits • Glacial landscapes

Consequences of glaciation

• Glacial lakes and pluvial lakes• Glacial deposits • Glacial landscapes• Large continental shelves

Consequences of glaciation

• Glacial lakes and pluvial lakes• Glacial deposits and landscapes• Large continental shelves• Exposed Canadian shield – all younger rocks

scraped off