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The Great Basin Seafloor: Exploring the Ancient Oceans of the Desert West
Many people appreciate the stunning vistas of the Great Basin desert; understanding the region’s geological past can provide a deeper way to know and admire this landscape. In The Great Basin Seafloor , Frank DeCourten immerses readers in a time when the Basin was covered by a vast ocean in which volcanoes exploded and sea life flourished.
Written for a nontechnical audience, this book interprets the rock record left by more than 500 million years of oceanic activity, when mud and sand accumulated and solidified to produce today’s Great Basin across parts of modern Utah, Nevada, and California. DeCourten deciphers clues within exposed slopes and canyons to reconstruct the vanished seafloor and its volcanic events and examines fossils to reveal once-thriving ancient marine communities. Supplemental material is available online to serve as a field guide for readers wishing to explore this ancient ocean themselves as they travel through the region.
Written for a nontechnical audience, this book interprets the rock record left by more than 500 million years of oceanic activity, when mud and sand accumulated and solidified to produce today’s Great Basin across parts of modern Utah, Nevada, and California. DeCourten deciphers clues within exposed slopes and canyons to reconstruct the vanished seafloor and its volcanic events and examines fossils to reveal once-thriving ancient marine communities. Supplemental material is available online to serve as a field guide for readers wishing to explore this ancient ocean themselves as they travel through the region.
256 pages, Paperback
Published June 6, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 24, 2022
The opening chapter of this book focuses on some basics of sedimentary geology, plate tectonics, geologic time scales. Satisfactory rnough.
Chapter Two looks at the Neoproterozoic Era (1000-540 millions of years ago [Mya]) and discusses the fossil evidence for the earliest life evidenced in the Great Basin. Cherts in the Pahrump Formation of sedimentary rocks in the southern Great Basin contain microscopic fossils of cyanobacteria, testate amobeas, and colonies of algae. At approximately 635 Mya, during a period of warming, microbial species increase and often formed biofilms whose traces are preserved as laminations in formations such as the Noonday Dolomite formation in Death Valley. More complex, worm-like lifeforms, appear towards the end of the Neoproterozoic Era; fossils of thes past lifeforms can be found in Death Valley rock formations.
The book's third chapter explores the Cambrian Period which sees an expansion of marine species worlwide. After reviewing the occurence of Cambrian period rock formations throughout the Great Basin--which are numerous throughout the many mountain ranges in Nevada and Utah--there
is an overview of trilobites, a common fossil type in Cambrian period rocks. The publisher should be complimented for the numerous color photographs in Cahpter 3 illustrating many of these fossils.
The Ordovacian Period, dating from approximately 485 to 445 Mya, is reviewed in Chapter 4. The Cambrian period ends with the extinction of many life-forms and an overall reduction of species. Carbon, oxygen and sulfur isotopes indicate something disrupting their natural cycle. The Ordovacian period also sees evidence of potential meteor strikes and volcanic activity. Despite these dynamic changes, this period sees the appearance of celaphods, crinoids,and nautaloids in the fossil record.
Chaters 5 and 6 review the Silurian, Devonian and early Carboniferous periods. Chapter 7 examines the geology and fossil record of the later half of the Carboniferous period and the Permian Period (299-252 Mya). These time periods are marked by complex geologic formations left on today's landscape, and a fossil record that shows a wide ranging diversity, but ends with
evidence for a massive extinction event. While the exact cause of the Permo-Triassic extinction is still debated, it is clear rising planetary temperatures, and large scale volcanic eruptions, played a role.
The book's final chapter looks at the Early Mesozoic (upto circa 200 Mya) fish and marine reptiles that swam in the receding ocean. This is the time of a plethora of creatures existing in the receding Great Basin ocean.
Unfortunately the book ends in the Mesozoic and doesn't deal with areas like Dinosaur National Monument in the eastern Great Basin.
Chapter Two looks at the Neoproterozoic Era (1000-540 millions of years ago [Mya]) and discusses the fossil evidence for the earliest life evidenced in the Great Basin. Cherts in the Pahrump Formation of sedimentary rocks in the southern Great Basin contain microscopic fossils of cyanobacteria, testate amobeas, and colonies of algae. At approximately 635 Mya, during a period of warming, microbial species increase and often formed biofilms whose traces are preserved as laminations in formations such as the Noonday Dolomite formation in Death Valley. More complex, worm-like lifeforms, appear towards the end of the Neoproterozoic Era; fossils of thes past lifeforms can be found in Death Valley rock formations.
The book's third chapter explores the Cambrian Period which sees an expansion of marine species worlwide. After reviewing the occurence of Cambrian period rock formations throughout the Great Basin--which are numerous throughout the many mountain ranges in Nevada and Utah--there
is an overview of trilobites, a common fossil type in Cambrian period rocks. The publisher should be complimented for the numerous color photographs in Cahpter 3 illustrating many of these fossils.
The Ordovacian Period, dating from approximately 485 to 445 Mya, is reviewed in Chapter 4. The Cambrian period ends with the extinction of many life-forms and an overall reduction of species. Carbon, oxygen and sulfur isotopes indicate something disrupting their natural cycle. The Ordovacian period also sees evidence of potential meteor strikes and volcanic activity. Despite these dynamic changes, this period sees the appearance of celaphods, crinoids,and nautaloids in the fossil record.
Chaters 5 and 6 review the Silurian, Devonian and early Carboniferous periods. Chapter 7 examines the geology and fossil record of the later half of the Carboniferous period and the Permian Period (299-252 Mya). These time periods are marked by complex geologic formations left on today's landscape, and a fossil record that shows a wide ranging diversity, but ends with
evidence for a massive extinction event. While the exact cause of the Permo-Triassic extinction is still debated, it is clear rising planetary temperatures, and large scale volcanic eruptions, played a role.
The book's final chapter looks at the Early Mesozoic (upto circa 200 Mya) fish and marine reptiles that swam in the receding ocean. This is the time of a plethora of creatures existing in the receding Great Basin ocean.
Unfortunately the book ends in the Mesozoic and doesn't deal with areas like Dinosaur National Monument in the eastern Great Basin.
May 19, 2023
I wished there had been a little more information on where to observe and how to identify the outcrops of the ancient seafloor, but a really interesting book anyway.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews