Wilson Cycle Phase 1: Rifting

“These two mountain ranges are really one and the same – except that they are now separated by the Atlantic Ocean, which cut the range in two at a low angle when it opened between them. At one time the two belts had been joined, end-to-end, Caledonides in the north, Appalachians in the south…”

~ John Tuzo Wilson, “Did The Atlantic Close And Then Re-Open?” Nature, Vol. 211, No. 5050, August 13, 1966

Rifting of the enormously long mountain chain ended up with parts in both North America (Appalachians) and Norway (Caledonides), among many other places. Geologist and Geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson reconstructed the multi-phased tectonics to trace the earlier proto-Atlantic Ocean that closed, and today’s Atlantic Ocean that opened through the processes that are named for him: The Wilson Cycles.

In the video below, “Wilson Cycle Phase 1: Rifting”, we travel with Professor Dougal Jerrom of Oslo University, and researchers from the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) who take us back 450 million years, and into what was once 90 kilometers deep in the Earth’s crust to the Caledonian rocks of Norway that tell us about the biggest cycle on Earth. Don’t miss the video which gives a voice to the rocks that record our dynamic Earth and the Wilson Cycle.

Wilson Cycle Phase 1: Rifting: https://youtu.be/WAGFSf8gqfg

Includes Step 1 and 2 of the Wilson Cycle: https://c.im/@vickyveritas/109623604569764070

Note: We will see the other steps of the Wilson Cycle in this series of videos. More to come!

#TheWilsonCycle #Caledonides #Norway #PlateTectonics #geology #peridotites #turbidites #tillites #conglomerates #ScienceMastodon #NorwegianGeologyRocks @geology

Last set of examples of soft sediment deformation in the. Squantum Member of the Roxbury Conglomerate, Boston Bay Group; Neoproterozoic and approximately contemporaneous with Gaskiers glaciation.

Although previously interpreted as a tillite (it is still sometimes referred to as the “Squantum Tillite), the “consensus” is now debris flows and turbidites.

#geology #sedimentology #turbidites #glaciology #Boston #Neoproterozoic #geosciences #sedimentary #rocks

Overturned soft sediment folds in the Neoproterozoic Squantum Member of the Roxbury Conglomerate, Boston Bay Group.

The tight folding (center left) is widely currently interpreted as occurring in a debris flow. White balance card held by a student on a field trip for “Earth’s Dynamic Systems” at U Mass Boston this semester. Squantum Head, Quincy, Massachusetts USA. My photo.

#turbidites #geology #sedimentary #geosciences #boston #UMassBoston #EnvironmentalScience

Interbedded tuffaceous and fine grained siliciclastic layers in the Cambridge Argillite, a Neoproterozoic member of the Boston Bay Group, above the Roxbury Conglomerate. Usually interpreted as a turbidite distal to the Roxbury.

#turbidite #geology #turbidites #rocks

Interesting overturned fold, probably syndepositional(?). Neoproterozoic Squantum Member of the Roxbury Conglomerate, Quincy, MA. I visited these rocks with my “Earth’s Dynamic Systems” class this fall. Tillite or debrisite/turbidite? Many debrisite/turbidite features, a few possible dropstones, not much faceting or striation. Possibly contemporaneous with Gaskiers.

#Boston #rocks #sedimentary #geology #turbidites #glaciology