10 Mesozoic-Cenozoic Flashcards
What’s important about the end-Permian extinction
The largest extinction, up to 90-95% of all organisms vanished. Also called The Great Dying
What are the five big extinctions?
- Late ordovician
- Late Devonian
- Late Permian
- Late Triassic
- Late Cretaceous
What things happened leading up to the permian-triassic extinction?
- Ocean acidification
- Global anoxia (absence of oxygen)
- Global warming
What forms in anoxic conditions in the ocean
Pyrite accumulates
What is the biggest eruption in the last 600Ma?
Siberian Trap eruptions and came out over 200k to 1 Ma
What happened after the P-T extinction?
Back to only microbial life like stromatolites
What period was the Absaroka II (Sulphur Mountain Formation)?
Early Triassic
What kind of rocks are in the Sulphur Mountain Formation?
Coarse clastics (siltstone and shale)
What kind of rocks were in western Canada in the triassic?
Siliclastics
What kind of fossils are in the Sulphur Mountain Formation?
Rare bivalves (clams) in otherwise barren siltstone
What is isostatic rebound?
When a crustal load is removed from the lithosphere the ground will rebound toward its original position
Slides 30-47 Alberta Foreland Basin
What period was Absaroka III to Zuni I (Fernie and Kootenay Formation)?
Early Jurassic to early cretaceous
What happened during the early Jurassic?
Beginning of orogeny
In what order did Fernie formation and Kootenay group form and the conditions that they formed?
Early Jurassic, Fernie Fm. and deep water marine shale minor siltstone)
Late Jurassic, Kootaney Gr. and shallow marine to non-marine coal-bearing sandstone)
