Western Interior Seaway Timeline
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.
Western interior seaway timeline. The western interior seaway. The cretaceous western interior seaway krə tay shəs was a sea that divided the eastern and western portions of north america for about 60 million years 130 70 mya. Climate change likely dried up the interior seaway and held its waters frozen in the poles.
Chapter 11 the cretaceous period. This site discusses the physiography origin evolution and biologic significance of this intriguing geologic feature. Geology of the western interior seaway.
The cretaceous aged rocks of the continental interior of the united states from texas to montana record a long geological history of this region being covered by a relatively shallow body of marine water called the western interior seaway wis. The western interior seaway was a large inland sea that existed during the mid to late cretaceous period as well as the very early paleogene splitting the continent of north america into two. Western interior seaway during the mid cretaceous about 100 million years ago.
This allows for accuracy in examining narrow slots of geologic time. Western interior seaway 82 9 ma campanian early western interior seaway 84 ma santonian late western interior seaway 87 9 ma coniacian middle. The western interior seaway is an ancient intracontinental seaway that occupied much of modern western north america and existed throughout much of the cretaceous period.
The year 2007 marked an overall rise in the summertime melting trend over the highest altitudes of the greenland ice sheet. Melting in areas above 2 000 meters about 6 560 feet rose 150 percent above the long term average with melting occurring on 25 30 more days in 2007 than the average in the previous 19 years. The western interior seaway also called the cretaceous seaway the niobraran sea and the north american inland sea was a huge inland sea that split the continent of north america into two halves during most of the mid and late cretaceous period.
The wis divided north america in two during the end of the age of dinosaurs and connected the ancient gulf of mexico with the arctic ocean. The late cretaceous has especially closely spaced time slices many less than million years apart.