important than the Paleozoic, for much of this portion of the
continent was land during the Mesozoic era, and the area of the
Mesozoic rocks is small. In western North America, on the other
hand, the strata of the Mesozoic--and of the Cenozoic also--are
widely spread. The Paleozoic rocks are buried quite generally from
view except where the mountain makings and continental uplifts of
the Mesozoic and Cenozoic have allowed profound erosion to bring
them to light, as in deep canyons and about mountain axes. The
record of many of the most important events in the development of
the continent during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras is found in
the rocks of our western states.

THE TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC

EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. The sedimentary record interrupted by the
Appalachian deformation was not renewed in eastern North America
until late in the Triassic. Hence during this long interval the
land stood high, the coast was farther out than now, and over our
Atlantic states geological time was recorded chiefly in erosion
forms of hill and plain which have long since vanished. The area
of the later Triassic rocks of this region, which take up again
the geological record, is seen in the map of Figure 260. They lie
on the upturned and eroded edges of the older rocks and occupy
long troughs running for the most part parallel to the Atlantic
coast. Evidently subsidence was in progress where these rocks were
deposited. The eastern border of Appalachia was now depressed. The
oldland was warping, and long belts of country lying parallel to
the shore subsided, forming troughs in which thousands of feet of
sediment now gathered.