Exam 11: Late Paleozoic Earth History

The first orogeny in the Cordilleran mobile belt was the ____________________ orogeny.

During the Late Paleozoic, the southern part of Pangaea was distinguished by ____ climate conditions.

The Ancestral Rockies were unique because they were the only mountain ranges in North America to form ____.

The aqueous environment during the formation of the Kaskaskian black shale was ____________________ in its oxygen content.

The red color in red rocks usually indicates the presence of ____.

When geologists identify coal, they know the past environment was a(n) ____.

Discuss the environment of deposition of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian black shales. Describe the characteristics of black shales. Include some examples of formation names for these black shales.

Coal is a detrital (clastic) sedimentary rock.

Erosion of the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic core of the uplifted Ancestral Rockies produced thick fans of arkose and conglomerate.

During parts of the Late Paleozoic the northern hemisphere continental masses were glaciated.

During the Devonian period, North America was largely covered by an epeiric sea.

The ____________________ ____________________ is a thick clastic wedge formed by mountains created during the ____________________ orogeny.

The Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian _________________ _________________ of North America are typically noncalcareous, thinly bedded, less than 10 m thick, and rarely contain fossils.

When Pangaea was assembled, the ocean surrounding it was the ____________________.

The Caledonian orogeny closed the Iapetus Ocean and merged Baltica with Laurentia.

Black shales are especially abundant from the Late Devonian to Mississippian in North America.

Throughout the Late Paleozoic, North America was located ____.

Which mobile belts were involved in the collision between Gondwana and Laurasia during the Carboniferous period?

The Carboniferous coal deposits of North America probably were derived from plants that grew in temperate climates.

The Pennsylvanian and Permian periods in North America, correspond to the Carboniferous period in Europe and the rest of the world.