PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF THE CONIACIAN-MAASTRICHTIAN AGES OF THE LATE CRETACEOUS

Abstract

Global lithologic-paleogeographic maps were compiled for the Coniacian, Santonian, Campanian, and Maastrichtian ages of the Late Cretaceous. Main features of paleogeography of continental and oceanic hemispheres of the Earth and ocean-continent transition zones during the second half of the late Cretaceous are considered. Continental hemisphere was divided into two asymmetrical segments: the northern segment of the Laurasian continent and the southern one, comprising isolated Gondwanan blocks. In the terminal Late Cretaceous, the sublatitudinal Tethys was divided, after the formation of integrated Atlantic Ocean, into two autonomous parts: the Caribbean basin in the west and the Late Cretaceous Tethys in the east. The oceanic hemisphere was occupied by the Pacific, whose central part represented a deep pelagic zone where abyssal basins widened and deepened. Most significant global paleogeographic transformations occurred in the peripheral zones of the Pacific and Tethys and also in continents bounding these basins.