earth science

Sundance Sea

Sundance Sea is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sundance Sea rather than just read about it. In short: The Sundance Sea was an epeiric sea that existed in North America during the mid-to-late Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era. It was an arm of what is now the Arctic Ocean, and extended through what is now western Canada into the central western United States.

Key takeaways

Sundance Sea belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sundance Sea to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sundance Sea from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Sundance Sea was an epeiric sea that existed in North America during the mid-to-late Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era. It was an arm of what is now the Arctic Ocean, and extended through what is now western Canada into the central western United States. The sea receded when highlands to the west began to rise.

Stratigraphy The Sundance Sea did not occur at a single time; geological evidence suggests that the Sea was actually a series of five successive marine transgressions—each separated by an erosional hiatus—which advanced and receded from the middle Jurassic onward. The terrestrial sediments of the Morrison Formation—eroded from rising highlands to the west—were deposited on top of the marine Sundance sediments as the sea regressed for the last time late in the Jurassic.

Fauna The Sundance Sea was rich in many types of animals. Gryphaea was extremely common, and shark teeth have been found. In addition to fish, belemnites and to an extent ammonites have been found in sediments from the Sundance Sea. Crinoids and bivalves would have dotted the seafloor. Baptanodon, a large 20-foot (6 m) long ichthyosaur, swam in the seas using its large, long jaws to catch belemnite 'squid'. Pantosaurus, a 15–20 foot (4.5–6 m) long cryptoclidid plesiosaur, went after the easier-to-catch fish. The largest marine reptile in the Sundance Sea was Megalneusaurus, a 25-foot (8 m) long pliosaur similar to Liopleurodon. Its fossils have been found in Alaska and Wyoming, which were both covered by the Sundance Sea when it was alive. During the periods of recession, dinosaurs and other Jurassic terrestrial animals frequented the shores, as evidenced by the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite near Shell, Wyoming.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sundance Sea

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sundance Sea claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sundance Sea before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sundance Sea ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sundance Sea

In research: Sundance Sea appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sundance Sea in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sundance Sea is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geology of the Rocky Mountains, Historical oceans, Jurassic Alberta, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sundance Sea outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sundance Sea in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sundance Sea means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sundance Sea out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sundance Sea in simple terms?

Why does Sundance Sea matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sundance Sea?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sundance Sea.