What sedimentary rock reveals the presence of the Western Interior Seaway in North America?
Modern Traces of the Western Interior Seaway. Traces of the Western Interior Seaway can still be found in marine deposits throughout the United States ranging from New Mexico to North Dakota, including famous ones such as the Pierre Shale and the Austin Chalk.
What happened to the Western Interior Seaway?
The Western Interior Seaway lasted for about 60 million years, longer than the human species, but all things must come to an end and the last we saw of the seaway was 70 million years ago. Climate change likely dried up the interior seaway and held its waters frozen in the poles.
How old is the Western Interior Seaway?
Western Interior Seaway during the mid-Cretaceous, some 100 million years ago.
What lived in the Western Interior Seaway?
The Western Interior Seaway was a shallow sea, filled with abundant marine life. Interior Seaway denizens included predatory marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs that grew up to 18 metres (59 ft) long.
How deep was the Western Interior Seaway?
2,500 feet
The Western Interior Seaway was a huge inland sea. It split North America into two halves for most of the mid- and late-Cretaceous Period. It was up to 2,500 feet (760 m) deep, 600 miles (970 km) wide and over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long.
What did the Cretaceous period look like?
The climate was generally warmer and more humid than today, probably because of very active volcanism associated with unusually high rates of seafloor spreading. The polar regions were free of continental ice sheets, their land instead covered by forest. Dinosaurs roamed Antarctica, even with its long winter night.
Did Kansas used to be an ocean?
Kansas was once covered by a shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway. The warm ocean was home to many plants, huge fish, swimming birds, and reptiles. Some of the creatures found in the sea were as long as the width of a basketball court. Some fish had enormous mouths that opened 8 feet high.
Was Montana an ocean?
Three hundred fifty million years ago, a warm shallow sea covered the area of what are now the states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas. Actually, the ocean level was so high that most of the western hemisphere was underwater.
Was Kansas underwater?
Yes. Now, Kansas was a different world 85 million years ago. For starters, most of it was underwater. The whole continent was split apart by a shallow sea that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, from the Rockies to the Appalachians.
How deep was the western inland sea?
Was there an ocean in Kansas?
Kansas was once covered by a shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway. The warm ocean was home to many plants, huge fish, swimming birds, and reptiles. Some of the creatures found in the sea were as long as the width of a basketball court.