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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

GCAGS Transactions

Abstract


Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions
Vol. 21 (1971), Pages 107-113

Theoretical Approach to the Geological History of the Southern United States

William F. Tanner (1)

ABSTRACT

The hierarchical plate hypothesis of geological history, presented previously, includes the concept that the North American continental block has been circling the Pacific Basin plate, in a counter-clockwise sense, and rotating in the same sense, with an approximate period of 109 years. The present paper outlines implications, inherent in the hypothesis, for comparison with the actual history of North America during its latest 109 years of development. These implications include the following:

  1. Climate: Continental glaciation about 109 years ago.
    Warming during the late Precambrian.
    Tropical during the Paleozoic; much carbonate; widespread coal in late Paleozoic.
    Cooling during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, climaxing in new glaciation.
  2. Appalachian Mountains: Left lateral movement plus compression in Paleozoic. Right lateral movement plus tension in Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
  3. Caribbean: Developed initially about the end of the Paleozoic or beginning of the Mesozoic. Strike-slip margins on north and south.
  4. Gulf of Mexico: Tensional feature; developed initially about the end of the Paleozoic or beginning of the Mesozoic.
  5. Sedimentation: Major drainage toward the south (ambient coordinates), producing very large sediment volumes in the Gulf of Mexico.
  6. Depocenter: Shifting location toward the north and east, from Texas into Louisiana, due to continental rotation during post-Paleozoic time.
  7. Stream patterns: Reorientation, due to continental rotation, through Mesozoic and Cenozoic in a clockwise sense for first-order drainage, counter-clockwise for second-order drainage in the mid-continent area; much piracy.
  8. Eastern and western margins: Lateral shrinking, subsidence, and formation of north-south grabens, during post-Paleozoic time.
  9. Diapirism: Dikes, plugs, volcanoes, and salt domes (where salt was available) along the western, southern and eastern margins, during Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
  10. A probable short-lived geosyncline, of late Paleozoic age, near the southern edge of the continent, now having a northeast-southwest orientation.

These predictions compare favorably with the actual history of the continent.


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