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T.Y.B.Sc. GEOLOGY
GL-344 : Geotectonics
UNIT III : Global tectonics II
[H] Overview of Phanerozoic Tectonics
Dr. Sanjida A. Khan,
Head, Dept. of Geology,
Nowrosjee Wadia College,
Pune - 411001 1
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Phanerozoic
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Eon title style
 The Phanerozoic Eon is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and the
one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers 541 million years
to the present, and it began with the Cambrian Period when animals first developed
hard shells preserved in the fossil record. The time before the Phanerozoic, called the
Precambrian, is divided into the Hadean, Archaean and Proterozoic eons.
 The Phanerozoic is divided into three eras: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic,
which are further subdivided into 12 periods.
 The time span of the Phanerozoic starts with the sudden appearance of fossilized
evidence of a number of animal phyla; the evolution of those phyla into diverse forms;
the emergence and development of complex plants; the evolution of fish; the
emergence of insects and tetrapods; and the development of modern fauna. Plant life
on land appeared in the early Phanerozoic eon.
 During this time span, tectonic forces which move the continents had collected them
into a single landmass known as Pangaea (the most recent supercontinent), which then
separated into the current continental landmasses.
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Paleozoic Era
The Paleozoic is a time in Earth's history when complex
life forms evolved, took their first breath of oxygen on dry
land, and when the forerunners of all multicelular life on
Earth began to diversify.
There are six periods in the Paleozoic era: Cambrian,
Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and
Permian.

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Cambrian
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 The Cambrian is the first period of the
Paleozoic Era and ran from 541 million
to 485 million years ago.
 The Cambrian sparked a rapid
expansion in the diversity of animals, in
an event known as the Cambrian
explosion, during which the greatest
number of animal body plans evolved in
a single period in the history of Earth.
 Almost all phyla of marine animals Pannotia was centered on the South Pole, hence its name
evolved in this period.
 During this time, the super-continent
Pannotia began to break up, most of
which later recombined into the super-
continent Gondwana. 6
 Pannotia 545
Ma, view
centred on the
South Pole;
rotated 180°
relative to the
reconstruction
of Rodinia
above
Pannotia formed
as Laurasia was
added to
Gondwana c. 600
Ma (left) and
broke up 550 Ma
(right) when
Laurasia broke
apart. View
centred on the
South Pole.
Pannotia formed
as Laurasia was
added to
Gondwana c. 600
Ma (left) and
broke up 550 Ma
(right) when
Laurasia broke
apart. View
centred on the
South Pole.
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Ordovician Period title style
 The Ordovician spans from 485 million to 444 million years ago.
 The Ordovician was a time in Earth's history in which many species still
prevalent today evolved or diversified, such as primitive fish, cephalopods, and
coral. This process is known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, or
GOBE.
 By the end of the Ordovician, Gondwana had moved from the equator to the
South Pole, and Laurentia had collided with Baltica, closing the Iapetus Ocean.
 The glaciation of Gondwana resulted in a major drop in sea level, killing off all
life that had established along its coast.
 Glaciation caused an icehouse Earth, leading to the Ordovician–Silurian
extinction, during which 60% of marine invertebrates and 25% of families
became extinct.
 Though one of the deadliest mass extinctions in earth's history, the O-S
extinction did not cause profound ecological changes between the periods. 10
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Silurian Period
The Silurian spans from 444 million to 419 million years
ago, which saw a warming from an icehouse Earth.
This period saw the mass evolution of fish, as jawless fish
became more numerous, and early jawed and freshwater
fish appeared in the fossil record.
During this time, there were four continents: Gondwana
(Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India),
Laurentia (North America with parts of Europe), Baltica (the
rest of Europe), and Siberia (Northern Asia).
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Devonian Master title style
 The Devonian spans from 419 million to 359 million years ago.
 Also informally known as the "Age of the Fish", the Devonian features a huge
diversification in fish.
 Near the end of the Devonian, 70% of all species became extinct in a sequence of
mass extinction events, collectively known as the Late Devonian extinction.
 During most of the Devonian Period, North America, Greenland, and Europe were
united into a single Northern Hemisphere landmass, a minor supercontinent called
Laurussia or Euramerica.
 This union of the paleocontinents of Laurentia (comprising much of North America,
Greenland, northwestern Ireland, Scotland, and the Chukotsk Peninsula of
northeastern Russia) and Baltica (now most of northern Europe and Scandinavia)
occurred near the beginning of the Devonian Period.
 Extensive terrestrial deposits known as the Old Red Sandstone covered much of
its northern area, while widespread marine deposits accumulated on its southern
portion. 15
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Carboniferous title style
Period
 The Carboniferous spans from 359 million to 299 million years ago.
 Tropical swamps dominated the Earth, and the large amounts of trees created
much of the carbon that became coal deposits (hence the name
Carboniferous).
 About 90% of all coal beds were deposited in the Carboniferous and Permian
periods, which represent just 2% of the Earth's geologic history.
 Throughout the Carboniferous, there was a cooling pattern, which eventually
led to the glaciation of Gondwana as much of it was situated around the south
pole. This event was known as the Permo-Carboniferous glaciation and
resulted in a major loss of area for coal forests, the Carboniferous rainforest
collapse.
 The Carboniferous Period is formally divided into two major subdivisions - the
Mississippian (358.9 to 323.2 million years ago) and the Pennsylvanian (323.2
to 298.9 million years ago) subperiods - their rocks recognized
chronostratigraphically as subsystems by international agreement.
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 The Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) world is characterized by Laurussia,
a series of small cratonic blocks that occupied the Northern Hemisphere, and
Gondwana, an enormous landmass made up of present-day South America,
Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and the Indian subcontinent in the Southern
Hemisphere.
 Lithospheric plate movement brought the continents close together on one
side of the globe.
 During this time, the Tethys Sea separated the southern margin of the Old
Red Sandstone continent completely from Gondwana.
 By Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) times, plate movements had brought
most of Laurussia into contact with Gondwana and closed the Tethys.
 Laurussia and Gondwana became fused by the Appalachian-Hercynian
orogeny (mountain-building event), which continued into the Permian Period.
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Permian Master title style
Period
 The Permian spans from 298 million to 251 million years ago and was the last
period of the Paleozoic era.
 At its beginning, all continents came together to form the super-continent
Pangaea, surrounded by one ocean called Panthalassa.
 During the Permian, all the Earth's major landmasses were collected into a
single supercontinent known as Pangaea, with the microcontinental terranes
of Cathaysia to the east.
 Pangaea straddled the equator and extended toward the poles, with a
corresponding effect on ocean currents in the single great ocean
("Panthalassa", the "universal sea"), and the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, a large
ocean that existed between Asia and Gondwana.
 The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to
Laurasia, causing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to shrink.
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 A new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Neotethys Ocean, an ocean
that would dominate much of the Mesozoic era.
 The Central Pangean Mountains, which began forming due to the collision of
Laurasia and Gondwana during the Carboniferous, would reach their maximum
height during the early Permian around 295 million years ago, comparable to
the present Himalayas.
 The Earth was relatively dry compared to the Carboniferous, with harsh
seasons, as the climate of the interior of Pangaea was not moderated by large
bodies of water.
 The Permian ended with at least one mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic
mass extinction, an event sometimes known as "the Great Dying". This
extinction was the largest in earth's history and led to the loss of 95% of all
species of life.
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Mesozoic Era
The Mesozoic ranges from 252 million to 66 million years ago.
Colloquially known as "the age of the dinosaurs", the Mesozoic
features the appearance of many modern tetrapods, as reptiles
ascend to ecological dominance over synapsids.
There are three periods in the Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic, and
Cretaceous.

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Triassic Master title style
Period
 The Triassic ranges from 252 million to 201 million years ago.
 The Triassic is a transitional time in Earth's history between the Permian
Extinction and the lush Jurassic Period.
 It has three major epochs: Early Triassic, Middle Triassic. and Late Triassic.
 During the Triassic, almost all the Earth's land mass was concentrated into a
single supercontinent centered more or less on the equator and spanning
from pole to pole, called Pangaea (lit. 'entire land’).
 From the east, along the equator, the Tethys sea penetrated Pangaea,
causing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to be closed.
 Later in the mid-Triassic a similar sea penetrated along the equator from the
west. The remaining shores were surrounded by the world-ocean known as
Panthalassa (lit. 'entire sea’).
 All the deep-ocean sediments laid down during the Triassic have disappeared
through subduction of oceanic plates; thus, very little is known of the Triassic
open ocean.
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 The supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic - especially late
in that period - but had not yet separated.
 The first nonmarine sediments in the rift that marks the initial break-up of
Pangaea, which separated New Jersey from Morocco, are of Late Triassic
age; in the U.S., these thick sediments comprise the Newark Group.
 Because a super-continental mass has less shoreline compared to one
broken up, Triassic marine deposits are globally relatively rare, despite their
prominence in Western Europe, where the Triassic was first studied.
 In North America, for example, marine deposits are limited to a few
exposures in the west.
 Thus Triassic stratigraphy is mostly based on organisms that lived in lagoons
and hypersaline environments, such as Estheria crustaceans.

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Jurassic Master title style
Period
 The Jurassic ranges from 201 million to 145 million years ago, and features
three major epochs: Early Jurassic, Middle Jurassic, and Late Jurassic.
 The Jurassic was a time of significant global change in continental
configurations, oceanographic patterns, and biological systems.
 During the Early Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea began to break up
into northern supercontinent Laurasia and the southern supercontinent
Gondwana.
 The rifting between North American and Africa was the first to initiate,
beginning in the early Jurassic, associated with the emplacement of the
Central Atlantic Magmatic Province.
 During the Jurassic, the North Atlantic Ocean remained relatively narrow,
while the South Atlantic did not open until the Cretaceous.
 The continents were surrounded by Panthalassa, with the Tethys Ocean
between Gondwana and Asia. 28
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 At the end of the Triassic, there was a marine transgression in Europe,
flooding most parts of central and western Europe transforming it into an
archipelago of islands surrounded by shallow seas.
 Madagascar and Antarctica began to rift away from Africa during the late Early
Jurassic in association with the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous
provinces, opening the western Indian Ocean and beginning the
fragmentation of Gondwana.
 At the beginning of the Jurassic, North and South America remained
connected, but by the beginning of the Late Jurassic they had rifted apart to
form the Caribbean Seaway, which connected the north Atlantic Ocean with
eastern Panthalass.
 During the Early Jurassic, around 190 million years ago, the Pacific Plate
originated at the triple junction of the Farallon, Phoenix, and Izanagi tectonic
plates, the three main oceanic plates of Panthalassa. 29
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 The previously stable triple junction had converted to an unstable arrangement
surrounded on all sides by transform faults because of a kink in one of the
plate boundaries, resulting in the formation of the Pacific Plate at the centre of
the junction.
 During the Middle to early Late Jurassic, the Sundance Seaway, a shallow
epicontinental sea, covered much of northwest North America.

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Pangaea at the start of Jurassic

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Cretaceous Period
 The Cretaceous is the Phanerozoic's longest period, and the last period of
the Mesozoic.
 It spans from 145 million to 66 million years ago, and is divided into two
epochs: Early Cretaceous, and Late Cretaceous.
 The Cretaceous Period began with Earth’s land assembled essentially into
two continents, Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.
 These were almost completely separated by the equatorial Tethys seaway,
and the various segments of Laurasia and Gondwana had already started to
rift apart.
 When the Cretaceous Period ended, most of the present-day continents were
separated from each other by expanses of water such as the North and
South Atlantic Ocean. At the end of the period, India was adrift in the Indian
Ocean, and Australia was still connected to Antarctica.
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 At the end of the Cretaceous, the Deccan Traps and other volcanic eruptions
were poisoning the atmosphere. As this was continued, it is thought that a
large meteor smashed into Earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater creating the
event known as the K–Pg (Cretaceous–Paleogene) extinction, the fifth and
most recent mass extinction event, during which 75% of life on Earth
became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. The age of the dinosaurs
came to an end.

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Cenozoic Era
 The Cenozoic Era is generally divided into three periods: the
Paleogene (66 million to 23 million years ago), the Neogene (23 million
to 2.6 million years ago), and the Quaternary (2.6 million years ago to
the present).
 Cenozoic Era, third of the major eras of Earth’s history, beginning
about 66 million years ago and extending to the present.
 The Cenozoic featured the rise of mammals as the dominant class of
animals, as the end of the age of the dinosaurs left significant open
niches.
 It was the interval of time during which the continents assumed their
modern configuration and geographic positions and during which
Earth’s flora and fauna evolved toward those of the present.
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 Several of the world’s great mountain ranges were built during the Cenozoic. The main
Alpine orogeny, which produced the Alps and Carpathians in southern Europe and the
Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa, began roughly between 37 million and 24
million years ago.
 The Himalayas were formed some time after the Indian Plate collided with the
Eurasian Plate.
 These lofty mountains marked the culmination of the great uplift that occurred during
the late Cenozoic when the Indian Plate drove many hundreds of kilometers into the
underbelly of Asia.
 They are the product of the low-angle under thrusting of the northern edge of the
Indian Plate under the southern edge of the Eurasian Plate.
 From about five million years ago, the Rocky Mountains and adjoining areas were
elevated by rapid uplift of the entire region without faulting. This upwarping sharply
steepened stream gradients, enabling rivers to achieve greater erosional power.
 As a result, deep river valleys and canyons, such as the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado River in northern Arizona, were cut into broad upwarps of sedimentary rock
during late Cenozoic time. 38
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 On a global scale the Cenozoic witnessed the further dismemberment of the Northern
Hemispheric supercontinent of Laurasia: Greenland and Scandinavia separated during
the early Cenozoic about 55 million years ago.
 The Atlantic continued to expand while the Pacific experienced a net reduction in size
as a result of continued seafloor spreading.
 The western part of the Tethys evolved into the Mediterranean Sea not long after it
had been cut off from the global ocean system about 6 million to 5 million years ago
and had formed evaporite deposits which reach up to several kilometers in thickness
in a land-locked basin that may have resembled Death Valley in present-day
California.
 Antarctica remained centered on the South Pole throughout the Cenozoic, but the
northern continents converged in a northward direction.
 Unique feature of the Cenozoic was the development of glaciation on the Antarctic
continent about 35 million years ago and in the Northern Hemisphere between 3
million and 2.5 million years ago.
 Glaciation left an extensive geologic record on the continents in the form of
predominantly unconsolidated tills and glacial moraines. 39
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Paleogene Period
 The Paleogene spans from the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, some
66 million years ago, to the dawn of the Neogene 23 million years ago. It
features three epochs: Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene.
 The Paleocene Epoch began with the K–Pg extinction event, and the early
part of the Paleocene saw the recovery of the Earth from that event. The
continents began to take their modern shape, but many continents (and
India) remained separated from each other: Africa and Eurasia were
separated by the Tethys Sea, and the Americas were separated by the strait
of Panama.
 The Eocene Epoch ranged from 56 million to 34 million years ago. At the
transition between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs there was a significant
extinction event, the cause of which is debated.
 The Oligocene Epoch spans from 34 million to 23 million years ago.
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Neogene Period
 The Neogene spans from 23.03 million to 2.58 million years ago. It features
two epochs: the Miocene and the Pliocene.
 The Miocene spans from 23.03 million to 5.333 million years ago. The Tethys
Sea finally closed with the creation of the Arabian Peninsula and in its wake
left the Black, Red, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas.
 The Pliocene lasted from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago. Climatic
changes brought savannas that are still continuing to spread across the
world, Indian monsoons, deserts in East Asia, and the beginnings of the
Sahara desert. The Earth's continents and seas moved into their present
shapes. The world map has not changed much since, save for changes
brought about by the glaciations of the Quaternary, such as the Great Lakes.

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The location of the continents during the Neogene
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Quaternary Period
 The Quaternary spans from 2.58 million years ago to present day, and
is the shortest geological period in the Phanerozoic Eon. It features
modern animals, and dramatic changes in the climate. It is divided into
two epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene.
 The Pleistocene lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. This
epoch was marked by a series of glacial periods (ice ages) as a result
of the cooling trend that started in the Mid-Eocene.
 The Holocene began 11,700 years ago and lasts until the present day.
All recorded history and "Human history" lies within the boundaries of
the Holocene epoch.

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The Quaternary is one of the best-studied parts of the geologic

record. In part this is because it is well preserved in comparison
with the other periods of geologic time. Less of it has been lost to
erosion, and the sediments are not usually altered by rock-forming
processes.
Over this geologically short time period there has been relatively
little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate
tectonics.

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