Description
Book SynopsisAllow yourself to be taken back into deep geologic time when strange creatures roamed the Earth and Western North America looked completely unlike the modern landscape. Volcanic islands stretched from Mexico to Alaska, most of the Pacific Rim didn’t exist yet, at least not as widespread dry land; terranes drifted from across the Pacific to dock on Western Americas’ shores creating mountains and more volcanic activity. Landscapes were transposed north or south by thousands of kilometers along huge fault systems. Follow these events through paleogeographic maps that look like satellite views of ancient Earth. Accompanying text takes the reader into the science behind these maps and the geologic history that they portray. The maps and text unfold the complex geologic history of the region as never seen before.
Winner of the 2021 John D. Haun Landmark Publication Award, AAPG-Rocky Mountain Section
Table of ContentsGeologic setting of the Cordillera: Introduction to terranes.- Overview of modern landscapes and geology, Western North America.- Proterozoic – origin of continental crust and passive margin history.- Passive margins and broad seaways – Early Pz (Camb-Dev).- First accretion – Antler orogeny (Dev-Miss).- Unstable margin – Marginal Island Arcs and terrane juxtaposition (Miss-Penn).- Second Accretion – Sonoman orogeny (Perm-Tr).- Cordilleran Arc – Sevier orogeny – volcanoes, batholiths, and more terranes (J-K).- Shallow subduction and arc disruption (Paleogene).- Transform margin and crustal extension (Neogene).- Canyons and glaciers – shaping the modern landscape (Pleistocene to Recent).- Special places – where to see the landscapes.- Use of Plaeogeographic maps.- New North American series (whole or cropped to area covered) – broad areas and broad events – to provide broad geologic setting.- Colorado Plateau-SW North America series – regional detail and events of N Mexico, California, Nevada, Western Arizona, Western Utah, Oregon, Idaho.- Global series – broad geologic setting of Western North America through geologic time.
