Rifting of tectonic plates in eastern North America during the Jurassic Period was responsible for

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Jurassic Period, second of three periods of the Mesozoic Era. Extending from 201.3 million to 145 million years ago, it immediately followed the Triassic Period (251.9 million to 201.3 million years ago) and was succeeded by the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The Morrison Formation of the United States and the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, both famous for their exceptionally well-preserved fossils, are geologic features that were formed during Jurassic times.

The Jurassic was a time of significant global change in continental configurations, oceanographic patterns, and biological systems. During this period the supercontinent Pangea split apart, allowing for the eventual development of what are now the central Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Heightened plate tectonic movement led to significant volcanic activity, mountain-building events, and attachment of islands onto continents. Shallow seaways covered many continents, and marine and marginal marine sediments were deposited, preserving a diverse set of fossils. Rock strata laid down during the Jurassic Period have yielded gold, coal, petroleum, and other natural resources.

geologic time

The stratigraphic chart of geologic time.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Source: International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)

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During the Early Jurassic, animals and plants living both on land and in the seas recovered from one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth history. Many groups of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms important in the modern world made their first appearance during the Jurassic. Life was especially diverse in the oceans—thriving reef ecosystems, shallow-water invertebrate communities, and large swimming predators, including reptiles and squidlike animals. On land, dinosaurs and flying pterosaurs dominated the ecosystems, and birds made their first appearance. Early mammals also were present, though they were still fairly insignificant. Insect populations were diverse, and plants were dominated by the gymnosperms, or “naked-seed” plants.

The Jurassic Period was named early in the 19th century, by the French geologist and mineralogist Alexandre Brongniart, for the Jura Mountains between France and Switzerland. Much of the initial work by geologists in trying to correlate rocks and develop a relative geologic time scale was conducted on Jurassic strata in western Europe.

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Although the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea had already started in the Triassic Period, the continents were still very close together at the beginning of Jurassic time. The landmasses were grouped into a northern region—Laurasia—consisting of North America and Eurasia, and a southern region—Gondwana—consisting of South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia. These two regions were separated by Tethys, a tropical east-west seaway. During the Jurassic, spreading centres and oceanic rifts formed between North America and Eurasia, between North America and Gondwana, and between the various segments of Gondwana itself (see the map). In the steadily opening, though still restricted, ocean basins, there was a continuous accumulation of thick flood basalts and a subsequent deposition of sediments. Some of these deposits, such as salt deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and oil-bearing shales of the North Sea, are economically important today. In addition to ocean basin spreading, continental rifting initiated during the Jurassic, eventually separating Africa and South America from Antarctica, India, and Madagascar. The numerous microplates and blocks making up the complex Caribbean region today can be traced to this time interval.

Pangea: Late Jurassic Period

Paleogeography and paleoceanography of Late Jurassic time. Present-day coastlines and tectonic boundaries of continents are shown in the inset at the lower right.

Adapted from: C.R. Scotese, The University of Texas at Arlington

To accommodate the production of new seafloor along the proto-Atlantic Ocean, significant subduction zones (where seafloor is destroyed) were active along virtually all the continental margins around Pangea as well as in southern Tibet, southeastern Europe, and other areas. All along the west coast of North, Central, and South America, plate tectonic activity in the subduction zones brought on the initial formation of north-south mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. Along western North America, several terranes (islands or microcontinents riding on a moving plate) were brought east on oceanic crust and collided with the continent, including parts of a microcontinent that collided into the Alaskan and Siberian regions in the northern Pacific. These collisions added to the growth of the North American continent and its mountain chains. One mountain-building event, known as the Nevadan orogeny, resulted in the emplacement of massive igneous and metamorphic rocks from Alaska to Baja California. Granites formed in the Sierra Nevadas during this time can be seen today in Yosemite National Park, California.

In the Early Jurassic the western interior of North America was covered by a vast sand sea, or erg—one of the largest deposits of dune sands in the geologic record. These deposits (including the Navajo Sandstone) are prominent in a number of places today, including Zion National Park, Utah. In Middle and early Late Jurassic times, the western regions of North America were covered by shallow seaways that advanced and retreated repeatedly, leaving successive accumulations of marine sandstones, limestones, and shales. By Late Jurassic time the seaway had retreated, and strata bearing dinosaur fossils were deposited in river floodplains and stream channel environments, such as those recorded in the Morrison Formation, Montana.

Zion National Park

Cross-bedded sandstone cliffs in Zion National Park, Utah, U.S.

Peter L. Kresan

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Records of sea level changes can be found on every continent. However, because of the significant tectonic activity occurring around the world, it is not clear which of these local changes can be correlated to global sea level change. Because there is no evidence of major glaciations in the Jurassic, any global sea level change must have been due to thermal expansion of seawater or plate tectonic activity (such as major activity at seafloor ridges). Some geologists have proposed that average sea levels increased from Early to Late Jurassic time.