The Gulf Coastal Plain province extends eastward along the North American continental margin, and makes up a large part of the terrain of eastern North America. Both the Gulf Coast and eastern North America have been regarded as regions quiescent since the Jurassic Period because there appears to have been no obvious tectonic activity there, or any reason for it to occur. However, recent investigations, especially in eastern North America, suggest that this view may be too conservative.

Post-Jurassic tectonic activity in eastern North America is indicated by widespread faulting, extensive subsidence and uplift which continue to the present, igneous activity, and a regional horizontal compressive stress. Much of this activity seems to be associated with compressional deformation, and vertical uplift and subsidence. The regional extent of these events is very large, though the magnitude of the diastrophism is less spectacular than in other regions generally associated with orogenic activity. Any model that attempts to explain post-Jurassic tectonism in eastern North America must account for these types of activity.

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