Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-03-19
Ancient History of
The Gulf of Mexico.

Washington, March 1S.-(Special)-
Most people know in a general way
that large portions of the United
States have in the past been covered
by the ocean, but 1t is perhaps not so
generally known that the continent
is now rising in some places and sink
ing in others There is every reason
to believe that minor movements of
the land are constantly taking place.
Not so very long ago, in a geologic
sense, the Hudson River flowed through
a deep canyon or gorge at New York
City. Soundings show that this gorge
extends through the harbor and far
out to sea. 1t Is evident that the land
surface has been lowered in this reg
ion, allowing the ocean to creep in on
the land, fill the old river channel, and
in places wholly submerge it. The
submergence of the land was greater
at one time than 1t is now. In ex-
cavations for some of the New York
skyscrapers remains of oysters and
other salt water animals have been
found. AS a rule the only available
knowledge in regard to the former
submergence of an area is derived
from the marine shells and other ami
mails found in deposits laid, down by
the sea. By the nature of the fossils
biologists are able to tell approx
mately when the ocean invaded the
land. They have found evidence of
submergence of much greater magni-
tude and much older than that which
now floods the Hudson Valley Gotha-
mites and others need not, however,
feel alarmed at this statement of the
ups and downs of the continent, for
while geologically this submergence is
not SO very old, the geologist thinks
and speaks in terms of thousands IL
not millions of years.
Sharks Teeth Found in New Jersey.
Along the Atlantic coast. from New
Jersey southwark. it is not unusual to
find quantities of sharks teeth and
other marine fossils in the greensands
that are now located far inland and
are used for fertilizers In certain
sections of the southern Mississippi
Valley where limestone is not readily
accessible farmer will go out ana
gather a wagon load of fossil oyster
shells to burn for lime. The shark
bearing rocks of New Jersey and the
oyster beds of Tennessee are of the
same general age and represent one
of the later of the great invasions of
the ocean on the North American con-
tinent. In geologic parlance these
rocks are said to be of Cretaceous
age.
When tho Gulf Of Mexico Reached
Cairo.
In the course of it's Investigations OF
the geology of the country, the united
States Geological Survey has been
making a study of the Cretaceous de-
posits of the Eastern States and has
found that the ocean of that time COW
cred much of what is now the Atlantic
Coastal Plain, while the Gulf of MEXICO
spread widely over the central South
ern States, probably reaching as far
north as Cairo, Ill. The ONO was
then longer and older river than the
Mississippi. Some of the sediments
of this age, now hardened into rocks
were deposited in a shallow sea, some
about the mouths of rivers, and some
perhaps in the flood plains of the riv-
orc themselves. Ali these different
tvpes of sediments. as found in the
eastern Gulf region. are described IN
the United States Geological surveys
professional Paper 81, by L. w. Stepn-
enson. In another portion OF tne
naper is discussion of certain
oysterlike shells found in these Gre
taceous rocks, all the known species
being described and figured.
The paper is of interest to those nv
ing in the eastern Gulf region not only
as illustrating the geology of the area
but as indicating the distribution OF
certain types of rocks. AS the soil Is
made in large part by the slow decay
of the underlying rock, 1t naturally
follows that certain sorts OF ROCK
furnish better soil and subsoil tnan
others. BY means of the map inciuo-
| ed in the report the extent OF dinereh'
geologic formations can be traced.