Geological_history_of_Earth

qas: question: The initial state of earth was what?
answers: text: molten

question: What formed on the outside of the earth after it cooled?
answers: text: a solid crust

question: How does the mass of the moon compare to earth?
answers: text: about 10% of the Earth's mass

question: What created a primordial atmosphere on earth?
answers: text: Outgassing and volcanic activity

question: Ice from what source helped to create earths oceans?
answers: text: comets

question: What caused the Earths early crust to become molten?

question: What cooled allowing water to collect?

question: What happened when water started to accumulate on the surface?

question: What caused a piece of the earth to break of and form the moon?

question: How does the mass of the moon compare to the earths mass?
context: Earth was initially molten due to extreme volcanism and frequent collisions with other bodies. Eventually, the outer layer of the planet cooled to form a solid crust when water began accumulating in the atmosphere. The Moon formed soon afterwards, possibly as the result of a Mars-sized object with about 10% of the Earth's mass impacting the planet in a glancing blow. Some of this object's mass merged with the Earth, significantly altering its internal composition, and a portion was ejected into space. Some of the material survived to form an orbiting moon. Outgassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere. Condensing water vapor, augmented by ice delivered from comets, produced the oceans.

qas: question: Powerful volcanism contributed to cause early earth to be in what state?
answers: text: molten

question: What occurred in the atmosphere of the earth after the crust was formed?
answers: text: water began accumulating

question: What size of object may have created the moon?
answers: text: Mars

question: When water was creating the oceans what was happening to atmospheric water vapor?
answers: text: Condensing

question: What formed as water accumulated?

question: What cused the Earths solid crust to become molten?

question: How does the mass of the moon compare to the mass of the Earth?

question: What broke away a piece of the earth to form the moon?

question: What caused water vapor to evaporate?
context: Earth was initially molten due to extreme volcanism and frequent collisions with other bodies. Eventually, the outer layer of the planet cooled to form a solid crust when water began accumulating in the atmosphere. The Moon formed soon afterwards, possibly as the result of a Mars-sized object with about 10% of the Earth's mass impacting the planet in a glancing blow. Some of this object's mass merged with the Earth, significantly altering its internal composition, and a portion was ejected into space. Some of the material survived to form an orbiting moon. Outgassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere. Condensing water vapor, augmented by ice delivered from comets, produced the oceans.

qas: question: During what time period was the Archean era?
answers: text: 4,000 to 2,500 million years ago

question: During what period did the earths crust cooling allow the creation of plates?
answers: text: Archean

question: It is believed that a very warm earth would lead to more recycling of what?
answers: text: crustal material

question: What might have a very hot earth stopped from occurring?
answers: text: cratonisation and continent formation

question: What do some believe accounts for the small amount of Archean rocks?
answers: text: erosion and subsequent tectonic events

question: During what period did tectonic activity become like it is today?

question: What happened as the Earth's crust cooled following the Archean period?

question: What do scientist think was made more vigerous by the Earth's cooling?

question: What was recycled more as the earth cooled?
context: The Earth of the early Archean (4,000 to 2,500 million years ago) may have had a different tectonic style. During this time, the Earth's crust cooled enough that rocks and continental plates began to form. Some scientists think because the Earth was hotter, that plate tectonic activity was more vigorous than it is today, resulting in a much greater rate of recycling of crustal material. This may have prevented cratonisation and continent formation until the mantle cooled and convection slowed down. Others argue that the subcontinental lithospheric mantle is too buoyant to subduct and that the lack of Archean rocks is a function of erosion and subsequent tectonic events.

qas: question: What are Archean rocks composed of, in general?
answers: text: metamorphized deep-water sediments

question: What type of formation is indicated by low and high grade metamorphic rocks?
answers: text: Greenstone

question: From where did high grade Archean rocks originate?
answers: text: volcanic island arcs

question: Low grade metamorphic rocks are composed of what, generally?
answers: text: deep-sea sediments

question: What is a greenstone belt?
answers: text: sutured protocontinents

question: What kind od sediments where Proterozoic rocks made from?

question: What kind od belts often formed during the Proterozoic period?

question: What single type of rock formed Greenstone belts?

question: What kind of volcanic rock formed low-density metamorphic rock?

question: What kind of sediment formed high-density metamorphic rock?
context: In contrast to the Proterozoic, Archean rocks are often heavily metamorphized deep-water sediments, such as graywackes, mudstones, volcanic sediments and banded iron formations. Greenstone belts are typical Archean formations, consisting of alternating high- and low-grade metamorphic rocks. The high-grade rocks were derived from volcanic island arcs, while the low-grade metamorphic rocks represent deep-sea sediments eroded from the neighboring island frogs and deposited in a forearc basin. In short, greenstone belts represent sutured protocontinents.

qas: question: During what time period did the Proterozoic era occur?
answers: text: 2,500 to 541 million years ago

question: What era came before the Proterozoic era?
answers: text: Archean

question: In what type of sea did typical Proterozoic geology come to be?
answers: text: shallow epicontinental seas

question: What type of continental behavior was unique to the Proterozoic?
answers: text: rapid continental accretion

question: What is the name for the large super continent that broke apart 750 million years ago?
answers: text: Rodinia

question: What period has a more complete geological record than the Proterozoic?

question: what was layed down in deep seas during the Proterozoic period?

question: What was made in shallow seas during the Archean period?

question: What type of continental behavior was a unique to the Archean period?

question: What broke apart 750 million years ago and was called Pannotia?
context: The geologic record of the Proterozoic (2,500 to 541 million years ago) is more complete than that for the preceding Archean. In contrast to the deep-water deposits of the Archean, the Proterozoic features many strata that were laid down in extensive shallow epicontinental seas; furthermore, many of these rocks are less metamorphosed than Archean-age ones, and plenty are unaltered. Study of these rocks show that the eon featured massive, rapid continental accretion (unique to the Proterozoic), supercontinent cycles, and wholly modern orogenic activity. Roughly 750 million years ago, the earliest-known supercontinent Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia, 600–540 Ma.

qas: question: During what period was the Paleozoic era?
answers: text: 541 to 252 million years ago

question: How many periods of geology are within the Paleozoic era?
answers: text: six

question: The Permian is an example of what?
answers: text: geologic periods

question: After what continental event did the Paleozoic begin?
answers: text: breakup of a supercontinent called Pannotia

question: What continent was formed at the end of the Paleozoic?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: What period ended 541 million years ago?

question: What period started right before the breakup of Pannotia?

question: What was the scope of the ice age that began at the same time as the Paleozoic period?

question: What was the name of the superconinent that formed at the begining of the Paleozoic?

question: What did Pangea break into at the end of the Paleozoic?
context: The Paleozoic spanned from roughly 541 to 252 million years ago (Ma) and is subdivided into six geologic periods; from oldest to youngest they are the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. Geologically, the Paleozoic starts shortly after the breakup of a supercontinent called Pannotia and at the end of a global ice age. Throughout the early Paleozoic, the Earth's landmass was broken up into a substantial number of relatively small continents. Toward the end of the era the continents gathered together into a supercontinent called Pangaea, which included most of the Earth's land area.

qas: question: At what rough time did the Cambrian era start?
answers: text: 541.0 ± 1.0 Ma.

question: What were the continents of the Cambrian area believed to have formerly been a part of?
answers: text: Pannotia

question: What continent moved to the southern-most part of the earth in the Cambrian era?
answers: text: Gondwana

question: What continent ranged over the majority of the southern hemisphere of earth in the Cambrian?
answers: text: Panthalassa

question: Baltica and Sibera are examples of what thing, during the Cambrian era?
answers: text: independent continents

question: What period is a minor division in the geologic timescale?

question: What supercontinent was formed from the coninents of the Cambrian?

question: During what period were the oceans widespread and deep?

question: What drift rates were high during the Cambrian?

question: When did Pannotia begin to drift towards the South Pole?
context: The Cambrian is a major division of the geologic timescale that begins about 541.0 ± 1.0 Ma. Cambrian continents are thought to have resulted from the breakup of a Neoproterozoic supercontinent called Pannotia. The waters of the Cambrian period appear to have been widespread and shallow. Continental drift rates may have been anomalously high. Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia remained independent continents following the break-up of the supercontinent of Pannotia. Gondwana started to drift toward the South Pole. Panthalassa covered most of the southern hemisphere, and minor oceans included the Proto-Tethys Ocean, Iapetus Ocean and Khanty Ocean.

qas: question: How long ago did the Ordovician period begin?
answers: text: 485.4 ± 1.9 Ma.

question: Which event precipitated the Ordovician period?
answers: text: the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction

question: What was the name of the large southernmost continent during the Ordovician?
answers: text: Gondwana

question: Which ocean decreased in size with the movement of Baltica in the Ordovician?
answers: text: Iapetus Ocean

question: What continent fractured off Gondwana in the direction of Laurentia?
answers: text: Avalonia

question: What was the name of the period that ended with a major extinction event?

question: What extinction event occured at the end of the Ordocician Period?

question: When was the extinction event that ended the Ordovician period?

question: What contenent formed several southern coninents during the Ordovician?

question: What continent drifted from the South Pole to the equator?
context: The Ordovician Period started at a major extinction event called the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events some time about 485.4 ± 1.9 Ma. During the Ordovician the southern continents were collected into a single continent called Gondwana. Gondwana started the period in the equatorial latitudes and, as the period progressed, drifted toward the South Pole. Early in the Ordovician the continents Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica were still independent continents (since the break-up of the supercontinent Pannotia earlier), but Baltica began to move toward Laurentia later in the period, causing the Iapetus Ocean to shrink between them. Also, Avalonia broke free from Gondwana and began to head north toward Laurentia. The Rheic Ocean was formed as a result of this. By the end of the period, Gondwana had neared or approached the pole and was largely glaciated.

qas: question: What type of climate was normal in the Ordovician period?
answers: text: stable greenhouse conditions

question: What ice age signaled the end of the normal climate in the Ordovician period?
answers: text: the Hirnantian faunal stage

question: Oxygen from what kind of fossil were used to date the Hirnantian faunal stage?
answers: text: brachiopods

question: How many years is the Hirnantian faunal stage believed to have lasted?
answers: text: 0.5 to 1.5 million years

question: What started to develop on Gondwana as it moved over the south pole?
answers: text: ice caps

question: What faunel stage triggered the greenhouse conditions of the Ordovician?

question: What showed that the ice age lasted longer than originally thought?

question: What is know believed to have lasted more than 1.5 million years?

question: What levels rose in the atmosphere prior to the ice age?

question: Where where the oranisms laffected byrisingcarbon dioxide levels?
context: The most-commonly accepted theory is that these events were triggered by the onset of an ice age, in the Hirnantian faunal stage that ended the long, stable greenhouse conditions typical of the Ordovician. The ice age was probably not as long-lasting as once thought; study of oxygen isotopes in fossil brachiopods shows that it was probably no longer than 0.5 to 1.5 million years. The event was preceded by a fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide (from 7000ppm to 4400ppm) which selectively affected the shallow seas where most organisms lived. As the southern supercontinent Gondwana drifted over the South Pole, ice caps formed on it. Evidence of these ice caps have been detected in Upper Ordovician rock strata of North Africa and then-adjacent northeastern South America, which were south-polar locations at the time.

qas: question: When was the Silurian period believed to have begun?
answers: text: 443.8 ± 1.5 Ma.

question: Compared to the Ordovician glaciation, how big were the ice caps on Gondwana during the Silurian?
answers: text: less extensive

question: What did the melting of ice on Gondwana add to?
answers: text: a rise in sea levels

question: Which supercontinent formed during the Silurian?
answers: text: Euramerica

question: Which ocean ranged the majority of the northern hemisphere in the Silurian period?
answers: text: Panthalassa

question: What continent continued to drift northward during the Silurian?

question: What was more extensive compared to the Ordovician glaciations?

question: What lead to a rise in sea levels during the Ordovician?

question: what was formed from Euramerica breaking up?

question: What large ocean covered most of the Southern hemisphere?
context: The Silurian is a major division of the geologic timescale that started about 443.8 ± 1.5 Ma. During the Silurian, Gondwana continued a slow southward drift to high southern latitudes, but there is evidence that the Silurian ice caps were less extensive than those of the late Ordovician glaciation. The melting of ice caps and glaciers contributed to a rise in sea levels, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an unconformity. Other cratons and continent fragments drifted together near the equator, starting the formation of a second supercontinent known as Euramerica. The vast ocean of Panthalassa covered most of the northern hemisphere. Other minor oceans include Proto-Tethys, Paleo-Tethys, Rheic Ocean, a seaway of Iapetus Ocean (now in between Avalonia and Laurentia), and newly formed Ural Ocean.

qas: question: During what time period was the Devonian era?
answers: text: 419 to 359 Ma.

question: Which continent was formed from the meeting of Laurentia and Baltica?
answers: text: Euramerica (or Laurussia)

question: Which sedimentary beds were created in the dry areas of Euramerica in the Devonian period?
answers: text: Old Red Sandstone

question: Which mountains associated with the USA were formed near the equator on  Pangaea during the Devonian?
answers: text: the northern Appalachian Mountains

question: What was the largest ocean referred to that existed in the Devonian period?
answers: text: Panthalassa

question: What kind of activity decreased during the Devonian?

question: What two continents where moving away from each other during Devonian?

question: What continent was formed when Laurasia and Gondwanna colided?

question: What type od seimentary beds formed in the desert along the Tropic of Capricorn?

question: What was shallow arounfd the world?
context: The Devonian spanned roughly from 419 to 359 Ma. The period was a time of great tectonic activity, as Laurasia and Gondwana drew closer together. The continent Euramerica (or Laurussia) was created in the early Devonian by the collision of Laurentia and Baltica, which rotated into the natural dry zone along the Tropic of Capricorn. In these near-deserts, the Old Red Sandstone sedimentary beds formed, made red by the oxidized iron (hematite) characteristic of drought conditions. Near the equator Pangaea began to consolidate from the plates containing North America and Europe, further raising the northern Appalachian Mountains and forming the Caledonian Mountains in Great Britain and Scandinavia. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent of Gondwana. The remainder of modern Eurasia lay in the Northern Hemisphere. Sea levels were high worldwide, and much of the land lay submerged under shallow seas. The deep, enormous Panthalassa (the "universal ocean") covered the rest of the planet. Other minor oceans were Paleo-Tethys, Proto-Tethys, Rheic Ocean and Ural Ocean (which was closed during the collision with Siberia and Baltica).

qas: question: What occurred to the level of the sea when the Devonian period was finished?
answers: text: A global drop

question: During which period were epicontinental seas created?
answers: text: Carboniferous

question: What was on the land at 30 degrees latitude north in the carboniferous period?
answers: text: lush coal swamps

question: What was the result in the decline in sea level in the middle of the Carboniferous period?
answers: text: a major marine extinction

question: The Pennsylvania period is separated by the drop in Carboniferous era sea levels from what other period?
answers: text: Mississippian Period

question: What dropped world wide at the begining of the Devonian?

question: How widespread was the drop in sea llevel in the Carboniferous?

question: What temperatures dropped during the Devonian?

question: What region was deeply impacted by the conditions of the Carboniferous?

question: What could be found just north of the glacerers 
context: A global drop in sea level at the end of the Devonian reversed early in the Carboniferous; this created the widespread epicontinental seas and carbonate deposition of the Mississippian. There was also a drop in south polar temperatures; southern Gondwana was glaciated throughout the period, though it is uncertain if the ice sheets were a holdover from the Devonian or not. These conditions apparently had little effect in the deep tropics, where lush coal swamps flourished within 30 degrees of the northernmost glaciers. A mid-Carboniferous drop in sea-level precipitated a major marine extinction, one that hit crinoids and ammonites especially hard. This sea-level drop and the associated unconformity in North America separate the Mississippian Period from the Pennsylvanian period.

qas: question: What geologic events took place when Pangea combined during the Carboniferous?
answers: text: mountain building

question: What was the continent that came to be North America and Europe called during the Carboniferous?
answers: text: Laurussia

question: What was the effect of Laurussia impacting Gondwana in North America?
answers: text: the Alleghenian orogeny

question: The mountains forming to the southwest of the Appalachians in the Carboniferous are known as what?
answers: text: the Ouachita Mountains

question: Which two large oceans existed during the Carboniferous period?
answers: text: the Panthalassa and Paleo-Tethys

question: What was formed as the southern coninents came together?

question: What did Pangea collide with?

question: What did the collision of Pangea cause to mountains in North America?

question: What did the collision with Pangea create in Europe?

question: What major oceans were shrinking in the Carboniferous?
context: The Carboniferous was a time of active mountain building, as the supercontinent Pangea came together. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America-Europe (Laurussia) along the present line of eastern North America. This continental collision resulted in the Hercynian orogeny in Europe, and the Alleghenian orogeny in North America; it also extended the newly uplifted Appalachians southwestward as the Ouachita Mountains. In the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. There were two major oceans in the Carboniferous the Panthalassa and Paleo-Tethys. Other minor oceans were shrinking and eventually closed the Rheic Ocean (closed by the assembly of South and North America), the small, shallow Ural Ocean (which was closed by the collision of Baltica, and Siberia continents, creating the Ural Mountains) and Proto-Tethys Ocean.

qas: question: What supercontinent prevailed during the Permian era?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: What was the largest ocean during the Permian called?
answers: text: Panthalassa

question: There was an ocean between Gondwana and Asia in the Permian, what was it?
answers: text: Paleo-Tethys Ocean

question: The moving of which continent contributed to the decrease in size of the Paleo-Tethys?
answers: text: Cimmeria

question: During which period was the Tehtys Ocean dominant?
answers: text: the Mesozoic Era

question: What supercontinent did Asia join in the Permian?

question: Wat continent stradled the south pole and extended towards the equator?

question: What coninent drifted away from Laurasia and towards Gondwana?

question: What continents movement decreased the size of the Paleo-Tethys
context: During the Permian all the Earth's major land masses, except portions of East Asia, were collected into a single supercontinent known as Pangaea. 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 was between Asia and Gondwana. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia, causing the Paleo-Tethys to shrink. A new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmasses create climates with extreme variations of heat and cold ("continental climate") and monsoon conditions with highly seasonal rainfall patterns. Deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea.

qas: question: Which ocean name is translated to mean "all the sea?"
answers: text: Panthalassa

question: What process obscures information aboutt he ocean during the Triassic period from inspection?
answers: text: subduction of oceanic plates

question: What was occurring to Pangaea in the late Triassic?
answers: text: Pangaea was rifting

question: Which sediements in the US are an indication of the break up of Pangaea?
answers: text: Newark Supergroup

question: What type of terrestrial animals are found from the Triassic period?
answers: text: terrestrial vertebrates

question: What can still be found in the deep-sea from the Trissic?

question: What continent ripped apart during the Triassic?

question: What indicates when New Jersy seperated from Rhode Island?

question: What stratigraphy is mostly based on non-saline organisms?
context: The remainder was the world-ocean known as Panthalassa ("all the 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. The supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic—especially late in the period—but had not yet separated. The first nonmarine sediments in the rift that marks the initial break-up of Pangea—which separated New Jersey from Morocco—are of Late Triassic age; in the U.S., these thick sediments comprise the Newark Supergroup. Because of the limited shoreline of one super-continental mass, 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 living in lagoons and hypersaline environments, such as Estheria crustaceans and terrestrial vertebrates.

qas: question: During what years was the Jurassic period?
answers: text: 201.3 ± 0.2 to 145.0 Ma.

question: Which supercontinent came apart in the Jurassic period?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: The Gulf of Mexico formed in the rift between North America and what other land mass?
answers: text: Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

question: At what point did the South Atlantic ocean begin to open?
answers: text: Cretaceous Period

question: Which late Jurassic cultural sites are famous in Europe?
answers: text: lagerstätten of Holzmaden and Solnhofen

question: What did Laurasia and Gondwana  form during the Jurassic Period?

question: What North Ocean was broad in the Jurassic Period?

question: What ocean closed during the Cretaceous?

question: What left marine deposits in the plains of south America?

question: What geological record is poot in Europe?
context: The Jurassic Period extends from about 201.3 ± 0.2 to 145.0 Ma. During the early Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea broke up into the northern supercontinent Laurasia and the southern supercontinent Gondwana; the Gulf of Mexico opened in the new rift between North America and what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Jurassic North Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow, while the South Atlantic did not open until the following Cretaceous Period, when Gondwana itself rifted apart. The Tethys Sea closed, and the Neotethys basin appeared. Climates were warm, with no evidence of glaciation. As in the Triassic, there was apparently no land near either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed. The Jurassic geological record is good in western Europe, where extensive marine sequences indicate a time when much of the continent was submerged under shallow tropical seas; famous locales include the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and the renowned late Jurassic lagerstätten of Holzmaden and Solnhofen. In contrast, the North American Jurassic record is the poorest of the Mesozoic, with few outcrops at the surface. Though the epicontinental Sundance Sea left marine deposits in parts of the northern plains of the United States and Canada during the late Jurassic, most exposed sediments from this period are continental, such as the alluvial deposits of the Morrison Formation. The first of several massive batholiths were emplaced in the northern Cordillera beginning in the mid-Jurassic, marking the Nevadan orogeny. Important Jurassic exposures are also found in Russia, India, South America, Japan, Australasia and the United Kingdom.

qas: question: The current continents were formerly known as what continent?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: Which oregenies followed the Nevadan in the Cretaceous?
answers: text: Sevier and Laramide

question: South America was formerly which continent?
answers: text: Gondwana

question: The rifting in the Cretaceous had what result on the oceans?
answers: text: raising eustatic sea levels

question: Antarctica was a part of what supercontinent?
answers: text: Gondwana

question: During what periods did Pangaea come together?

question: Which oregenies followed the Nevaden in the early Mesozoic?

question: What supercontinent stayed intact during the Cretaceous?

question: What lowered eustatic sea levels?
context: During the Cretaceous, the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangaea completed its breakup into present day continents, although their positions were substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, the convergent-margin orogenies that had begun during the Jurassic continued in the North American Cordillera, as the Nevadan orogeny was followed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies. Though Gondwana was still intact in the beginning of the Cretaceous, Gondwana itself broke up as South America, Antarctica and Australia rifted away from Africa (though India and Madagascar remained attached to each other); thus, the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were newly formed. Such active rifting lifted great undersea mountain chains along the welts, raising eustatic sea levels worldwide.

qas: question: During the height of the Cretaceous transgression how much of the earths land mass was under water?
answers: text: one-third

question: What type of rock was the Cretaceous notable for forming the most amount of?
answers: text: Phanerozoic

question: The Cretaceous is a part of which geologic era?
answers: text: Phanerozoic

question: Where can one find the Smoky Hill Chalk Member?
answers: text: North America

question: Where are the Deccan Traps?
answers: text: India

question: What sea north of Africa coninued to broaden?

question: Early in what period did the sea recede across central North America?

question: The Phanerozoic is part of what geological era?

question: What famouse lava beds are found in Europe?
context: To the north of Africa the Tethys Sea continued to narrow. Broad shallow seas advanced across central North America (the Western Interior Seaway) and Europe, then receded late in the period, leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between coal beds. At the peak of the Cretaceous transgression, one-third of Earth's present land area was submerged. The Cretaceous is justly famous for its chalk; indeed, more chalk formed in the Cretaceous than in any other period in the Phanerozoic. Mid-ocean ridge activity—or rather, the circulation of seawater through the enlarged ridges—enriched the oceans in calcium; this made the oceans more saturated, as well as increased the bioavailability of the element for calcareous nanoplankton. These widespread carbonates and other sedimentary deposits make the Cretaceous rock record especially fine. Famous formations from North America include the rich marine fossils of Kansas's Smoky Hill Chalk Member and the terrestrial fauna of the late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation. Other important Cretaceous exposures occur in Europe and China. In the area that is now India, massive lava beds called the Deccan Traps were laid down in the very late Cretaceous and early Paleocene.

qas: question: How many years long was the Cenozoic Era?
answers: text: 66 million years

question: Which extinction marked the beginning of the Cenozoic Era?
answers: text: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event

question: What geologic period are we in currently?
answers: text: Cenozoic Era

question: At the end of which era had the continents taken roughly their current shape?
answers: text: Mesozoic

question: The collision of the Indian sub continent and the Asian plate created which mountain range?
answers: text: the Himalayas

question: What Era precedes the Cretaceous-paleogene extinction event?

question: What extinction event ended the Cenozoic Era?

question: What were still grouped together by the end of the Mesozoic?

question: What sea opened near Africa?
context: The Cenozoic Era covers the 66 million years since the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event up to and including the present day. By the end of the Mesozoic era, the continents had rifted into nearly their present form. Laurasia became North America and Eurasia, while Gondwana split into South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and the Indian subcontinent, which collided with the Asian plate. This impact gave rise to the Himalayas. The Tethys Sea, which had separated the northern continents from Africa and India, began to close up, forming the Mediterranean sea.

qas: question: How many continents did Laurasia break into?
answers: text: three

question: In the Paleocene period Greenland was joined to which continent?
answers: text: North America

question: What mountain chain in the Cretaceous was lifted as a result of the Laramide oregeny?
answers: text: the Rocky Mountains

question: In which period did North and South america join?
answers: text: Neogene

question: Which ocean was closed when Africa moved northward during the Paleocene?
answers: text: Tethys

question: When did the Cretaceous processes begin?

question: What stopped drifting during the Paleocene?

question: What Supercontinent seperated into three during the Paleocene?

question: What connected Europe and Greenland?

question: What did Asia migrate towards?
context: In many ways, the Paleocene continued processes that had begun during the late Cretaceous Period. During the Paleocene, the continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Supercontinent Laurasia had not yet separated into three continents. Europe and Greenland were still connected. North America and Asia were still intermittently joined by a land bridge, while Greenland and North America were beginning to separate. The Laramide orogeny of the late Cretaceous continued to uplift the Rocky Mountains in the American west, which ended in the succeeding epoch. South and North America remained separated by equatorial seas (they joined during the Neogene); the components of the former southern supercontinent Gondwana continued to split apart, with Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia pulling away from each other. Africa was heading north toward Europe, slowly closing the Tethys Ocean, and India began its migration to Asia that would lead to a tectonic collision and the formation of the Himalayas.

qas: question: During what years did the Eocene period take place?
answers: text: 56 million years ago - 33.9 million years ago

question: Australia was connected to which other continent at the start of the Eocene?
answers: text: Antarctica

question: How long ago did Antarctica and Australia split?
answers: text: around 45 Ma

question: Around how many years ago is the current ice age pattern believed to have begun?
answers: text: 40 million years

question: The mixing of equatorial currents with Antarctic waters in the Eocene resulted in what?
answers: text: keeping global temperatures high

question: What reached their final positions during the Eocene?

question: What was Australia seperated from at the begining of the Eocene?

question: What pattern ended 45 million years ago 

question: What steared warm waters towards the Artic?
context: During the Eocene (56 million years ago - 33.9 million years ago), the continents continued to drift toward their present positions. At the beginning of the period, Australia and Antarctica remained connected, and warm equatorial currents mixed with colder Antarctic waters, distributing the heat around the world and keeping global temperatures high. But when Australia split from the southern continent around 45 Ma, the warm equatorial currents were deflected away from Antarctica, and an isolated cold water channel developed between the two continents. The Antarctic region cooled down, and the ocean surrounding Antarctica began to freeze, sending cold water and ice floes north, reinforcing the cooling. The present pattern of ice ages began about 40 million years ago.[citation needed]

qas: question: during which period did mountains form in the western part of North America?
answers: text: Eocene

question: What began to form in the flat basins in North America during the Eocene?
answers: text: huge lakes

question: In the Eocene, in Europe, which sea ceased to be?
answers: text: Tethys Sea

question: The Mediterranean sea is a remaining part of which sea from the Eocene?
answers: text: Tethys Sea

question: Which oregeny was created when India collided with Asia?
answers: text: the Himalayan orogeny

question: What three continent drifted together forming Laurasia during then Eocene?

question: What formed in the low basins of Europe?

question: What sea opened up?

question: What sea was created by the Alps?

question: What two coninents developed vastly differen fauna?
context: The northern supercontinent of Laurasia began to break up, as Europe, Greenland and North America drifted apart. In western North America, mountain building started in the Eocene, and huge lakes formed in the high flat basins among uplifts. In Europe, the Tethys Sea finally vanished, while the uplift of the Alps isolated its final remnant, the Mediterranean, and created another shallow sea with island archipelagos to the north. Though the North Atlantic was opening, a land connection appears to have remained between North America and Europe since the faunas of the two regions are very similar. India continued its journey away from Africa and began its collision with Asia, creating the Himalayan orogeny.

qas: question: What permanent structure formed on Antarctica?
answers: text: ice cap

question: The lift of which mountain range in Europe was the result of the African plate moving north into the Eurasian?
answers: text: the Alps

question: During what period was there a land bridge joining Europe and North America?
answers: text: Oligocene

question: In the Oligocene period South America broke free from what other continent?
answers: text: Antarctica

question: Which current resulted in the cooling of Antarctica?
answers: text: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

question: What semi-perminant feature developed in Antarctica?

question: Where did mountain building stop?

question: What plate was pushing south creating the Alps?

question: What incursion marked the end of Oligocene?

question: What slowed down the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?
context: Antarctica continued to become more isolated and finally developed a permanent ice cap. Mountain building in western North America continued, and the Alps started to rise in Europe as the African plate continued to push north into the Eurasian plate, isolating the remnants of Tethys Sea. A brief marine incursion marks the early Oligocene in Europe. There appears to have been a land bridge in the early Oligocene between North America and Europe since the faunas of the two regions are very similar. During the Oligocene, South America was finally detached from Antarctica and drifted north toward North America. It also allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to flow, rapidly cooling the continent.

qas: question: The formation of which mountain range was the result of of what zone along the Pacific Ocean side of South America?
answers: text: the Andes

question: Which continent was India colliding with in the Miocene?
answers: text: Asia

question: When Africa was colliding with Eurasia which seaway ceased to be during the Miocene?
answers: text: The Tethys Seaway

question: Between what period of time did the Tethys disappear?
answers: text: 19 and 12 Ma

question: Which crisis occured towards the end of the Miocene period?
answers: text: Messinian salinity crisis

question: What bridge was present during the Miocene?

question: What seaway opened as Africa collided with Eurasia?

question: When did the Tethys Seaway open?

question: What caused rain to increase in the Mediterranean
context: During the Miocene continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Of the modern geologic features, only the land bridge between South America and North America was absent, the subduction zone along the Pacific Ocean margin of South America caused the rise of the Andes and the southward extension of the Meso-American peninsula. India continued to collide with Asia. The Tethys Seaway continued to shrink and then disappeared as Africa collided with Eurasia in the Turkish-Arabian region between 19 and 12 Ma (ICS 2004). Subsequent uplift of mountains in the western Mediterranean region and a global fall in sea levels combined to cause a temporary drying up of the Mediterranean Sea resulting in the Messinian salinity crisis near the end of the Miocene.

qas: question: What is the link between North and South America called?
answers: text: the Isthmus of Panama

question: In which period did North and South America become linked?
answers: text: Pliocene

question: The Pliocene saw the end of what fauna in South America?
answers: text: marsupial faunas

question: The Mediterranean was created by the collision of Europe and what?
answers: text: Africa

question: What period came after the Pliocene?
answers: text: the Quaternary Period

question: What completely ended South America's marsupial faunas?

question: What formed to linked North and South America in the Quaternary Period?

question: What began at the with the Pilocene?

question: How often does the cycle of rising sea levels repeat?
context: South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama during the Pliocene, bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive marsupial faunas. The formation of the Isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, since warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off and an Atlantic cooling cycle began, with cold Arctic and Antarctic waters dropping temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean. Africa's collision with Europe formed the Mediterranean Sea, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. Sea level changes exposed the land-bridge between Alaska and Asia. Near the end of the Pliocene, about 2.58 million years ago (the start of the Quaternary Period), the current ice age began. The polar regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating every 40,000–100,000 years.

qas: question: How long ago did the last glacial period end?
answers: text: about 10,000 years ago

question: By what height did sea levels rise at the end of the last glacial period?
answers: text: 35 metres (115 ft)

question: During what period did sea levels rice 115 feet?
answers: text: Holocene

question: Glaciars from what period depressed the height of northern lands by 591 feet?
answers: text: Pleistocene

question: What sea did the Hudson Bay used to be a part of?
answers: text: Tyrrell Sea

question: When did the last glacial period begin?

question: What caused sea levelsw to rise 115 meters?

question: During what period did the height of the northern lands rise 591 feet?

question: What sea is the Hudson Bay part of?
context: The last glacial period of the current ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. Ice melt caused world sea levels to rise about 35 metres (115 ft) in the early part of the Holocene. In addition, many areas above about 40 degrees north latitude had been depressed by the weight of the Pleistocene glaciers and rose as much as 180 metres (591 ft) over the late Pleistocene and Holocene, and are still rising today. The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea. Holocene marine fossils are known from Vermont, Quebec, Ontario and Michigan. Other than higher latitude temporary marine incursions associated with glacial depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain and cave deposits. Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely upthrusting of non-glacial origin. Post-glacial rebound in Scandinavia resulted in the emergence of coastal areas around the Baltic Sea, including much of Finland. The region continues to rise, still causing weak earthquakes across Northern Europe. The equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to near its present boundaries.