Category Archives: Paleogeography

Rocks, The Origional Hard Data

Posted on March 3, 2014 by gymnosperm

You simply can’t deny rock. Kick it and it throbs your toe. They lie around us, largely ignored, Farmers curse them and pile them in walls, yet a few dedicated folks with pointed hammers have picked them to yield an … Continue reading →

Posted in Continental Wander Path, Geography, Geological Evolution of the Western United States, Geology, hard data, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Isochrons | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Around the World in Eighty Million Years

Posted on February 19, 2014 by gymnosperm

We have been doing a puzzle like you might have been given in first grade where there is some large animal with lines missing and your job is to connect the dots and fill it in. The joy is still … Continue reading →

Posted in Cretaceous normal superchron, Geography, Geology, Magnetic Reversals, Pacific Triangle, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Isochrons | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Pacific Triangle Revisited, The Impact, The Wave

Posted on February 2, 2014 by gymnosperm

We have explored the Pacific Triangle and the Ring around Antarctica in prior posts. It just seems so outrageous that three spreading ridges would suddenly emerge from a single point in the Panthalassic Ocean 170 million years ago and begin migrating away in … Continue reading →

Posted in Asteroid Impacts, Geography, Geology, Pacific Triangle, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Isochrons | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Pacific Triangle

Posted on November 24, 2013 by gymnosperm

The triangle is formed by lines of equal age in the ocean floor derived from bands of alternating magnetism as the earth’s pole flipped. It is one of the great mysteries discussed previously. The ocean floor gets progressively older from all … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geology, Pacific Triangle, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Isochrons | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Follow the Granite

Posted on November 3, 2013 by gymnosperm

Granite is the currency in the construction of continents. Here we will time step through the existing surface expression of granites and related igneous and metamorphic rock in the Western US from the Archean to the present. Sediments are boring. … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geological Evolution of the Western United States, Geology, History of Life, Paleogeography | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Yellowstone Hot Spot, Or Not

Posted on October 12, 2013 by gymnosperm

Besides the ocean spreading ridges there are several mysterious “hot spots” evident in seamount chains where volatile components of the mantle emerge at a point as a more or less continuous volcano. The most famous of these is the Hawaiian/Emperor … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geological Evolution of the Western United States, Geology, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Late Cretaceous Orogenic North American Continental Margin

Posted on September 22, 2013 by gymnosperm

A huge problem with geological maps is that their daunting psychedelic maze of colors makes it very difficult to bear down on specific features. We recently discovered a GIS series of State scale maps from USGS  where it is possible to … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geology, Gravity Anomalies, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Wild Idea #6743: Possible Impact Signatures in Seafloor Isochrons

Posted on June 22, 2013 by gymnosperm

Who knows from what depths the well of ideas flows? For me it is often during the liberation of rote manual work that frees some bandwidth while still requiring a minimal level of focus and blood flow to the brain. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asteroid Impacts, Geography, Geology, Magnetic Reversals, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Isochrons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

California Great Central Valley as a Cretaceous Sea of Cortez

Posted on February 18, 2013 by gymnosperm

I was travelling the world as I often do in Google Earth, pondering how strange it is that the Hawaiian Seamount chain created a gravity low its entire length, when I noticed this: Probably just because gravity lows are a nice deep … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geology, Gravity Anomalies, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Ring Around Antarctica

Posted on January 8, 2013 by gymnosperm

There are lots of rings around Antarctica. Sailors know the circum-Antarctic winds as the fearsome fifties, the screaming sixties, etc. These winds are not impeded by any land and they drive the circum-Antarctic currents in the Southern Ocean. The surface currents … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, True Polar Wander | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments