Sedimentary basins of the world. The sedimentary basins of the United States and Canada / Осадочные бассейны мира. Осадочные бассейны Соединенных Штатов и Канады

The Phanerozoic history of North America can be divided into three broad phases:
During the first phase, which lasted from the Late Precambrian to the Triassic, Pangea was under construction. The western continental margin was either a divergent (‘‘passive’’) margin, facing the paleo-Pacific Ocean (Panthalassa) or a backarc basin bordering that ocean, while the eastern margin, beginning in the Middle Ordovician, underwent convergent and collisional tectonism, with the generation of the Appalachian orogen.
Phase two, which extended through the Pennsylvanian and Permian, and overlapped in time with the first phase, saw the southwestern margin of the continent affected by oblique-slip displacement between North America and Gondwana (including portions of what are now Mexico and the southwestern United States), with the development of an orogenic highland called the Ancestral Rockies.
Phase three, commencing in the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic, corresponds to the Pangea breakup phase, during which North America drifted westwards (relative to a hot-spot reference frame). The eastern continental margin became the modern extensional Atlantic margin, while the western margin underwent accretionary tectonism leading to the assembly of the Cordilleran orogen. <...>