Regional Paleogeography

Please Note

As of February 2011, the maps on this page will no longer be updated; please visit

to access all of the maps in this series as well as new and revised maps.

Introduction

This presentation uses a series of paleogeographic and plate-tectonic reconstructions to show the broad patterns of Phanerozoic Earth history. Subject matter ranges from the scale of continents, to parts of continents, to orogens. Organization for each region is in geologic order from oldest to youngest.

North American Paleogeography

40 images track the geologic evolution of North America.

Paleogeography of Colorado Plateau Region

Detailed paleogeography of Colorado Plateau, Southern Rocky Mountains, and portions of Basin and Range.

Paleogeographic evolution of SW North America

Basins, uplifts, tectonic evolution, and paleogeography of greater Ancestral Rocky Mountains.

Mesozoic Paleogeography and Terrane Accretion

Controversial assembly of Western North America during Mesozoic.

Tertiary Paleogeography, Central Arizona

Tectonism, volcanism, sedimentation, and paleogeography of the Mogollon Rim and adjacent central Arizona.

Old-School Regional Maps

Older, lower-resolution maps of Europe, Asia, North Atlantic, and global spheres. Many of these maps will be replaced by new maps in the future.

Paleogeography

The paleogeographic maps on this site are representative of my many years of constructing these maps. They are made by plotting data and interpretations from the geologic literature and then painting the maps to look like satellite views of Earth's past. Thousands of publications were used in constructing these maps. The ages in millions (Ma) and Billions (Ga) of years ago and their correlation to the names on the geologic timescale are from the 2004 Timescale (Gradstein, et al.). For additional maps as well as most recent map revisions, please visit

Colorado Plateau Geosystems Website

All maps are copyright to me, Ron Blakey, and may bu used, with citation to Ron Blakey, NAU Geology, for educational, non-profit, non-commercial purposes. For commercial uses, please contact me.

DVD's of all maps in Global, North American, Colorado Plateau, and Western North American series are available for non-comercial use

LINK TO DVD'S