Laramide orogeny
The Laramide orogeny was a time period of
The orogeny is commonly attributed to events off the west coast of North America, where the
Magmatism associated with subduction occurred not near the plate edges (as in the
Basins and mountains
The Laramide orogeny produced intermontane
During the Laramide orogeny, basin floors and mountain summits were much closer to sea level than today. After the seas retreated from the Rocky Mountain region, floodplains, swamps, and vast lakes developed in the basins. Drainage systems imposed at that time persist today. Since the Oligocene, episodic epeirogenic uplift gradually raised the entire region, including the Great Plains, to present elevations. Most of the modern topography is the result of Pliocene and Pleistocene events, including additional uplift, glaciation of the high country, and denudation and dissection of older Cenozoic surfaces in the basin by fluvial processes.[4]
In the United States, these distinctive intermontane basins occur principally in the central Rocky Mountains from
At most boundaries,
Ecological consequences
According to paleontologist Thomas M. Lehman, the Laramide orogeny triggered "the most dramatic event that affected Late Cretaceous dinosaur communities in North America prior to their extinction."
See also
- Laramide Belt
- Sevier orogeny, earlier than the Laramide orogeny, in the Cretaceous era
- Nevadan orogeny, still earlier, in the late Jurassic—early Cretaceous era
- Geology of the Rocky Mountains
- Geology of the Pacific Northwest
Footnotes
- ^ Willis 2000
- .
- ^ Dumitru et al. 1991
- ^ National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the originalon 2011-06-17.
- ^ Lehman 2001, p. 310
- ^ Lehman 2001, p. 324
References
- Dumitru, T.A.; Gans, P.B.; Foster, D.A.; Miller, E.L. (1991). "Refrigeration of the western Cordilleran lithosphere during Laramide shallow-angle subduction". Geology. 19 (11): 1145–1148. .
- English, Joseph M.; Johnston, Stephen T. (2004). "The Laramide Orogeny: What Were the Driving Forces?". International Geology Review. 46 (9): 833–838. S2CID 129901811.
- Lehman, T. M. (2001). "Late Cretaceous dinosaur provinciality". In Tanke, D. H.; Carpenter, K. (eds.). Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Indiana University Press. pp. 310–328.
- Liu, L.; Gurnis, M.; Seton, M.; Saleeby, J.; Müller, R.D.; Jackson, J.M. (2010). "The role of oceanic plateau subduction in the Laramide orogeny" (PDF). Nature Geoscience. 3 (5): 353–357. doi:10.1038/ngeo829.
- Livaccari, Richard F.; Burke, Kevin; Sengor, AMC (1981). "Was the Laramide orogeny related to subduction of an oceanic plateau?". Nature. 289 (5795): 276–278. S2CID 27153755.
- Saleeby, Jason (2003). "Segmentation of the Laramide Slab -- Evidence from the southern Sierra Nevada region" (PDF). Geological Society of America Bulletin. 115: 655–668. .
- Schellart, W.P.; Stegman, D.R.; Farrington, R.J.; Freeman, J.; Moresi, L. (16 July 2010). "Cenozoic Tectonics of Western North America Controlled by Evolving Width of Farallon Slab". Science. 329 (5989): 316–319. S2CID 12044269.
- Willis, Grant C. (2000). "I thought that was the Laramide orogeny!". Utah's Sevier Thrust System. Utah Geological Survey.