758 GEOLOGY 



dating from the beginning or early part of the Upper Cretaceous. 

 On the other hand, northern Asia, which was largely submerged 

 during the earlier Cretaceous period, was largely land during the 

 later. 



Late in the Upper Cretaceous occurred the extensive lava-flows 

 of the Deccan. These flows, 4,000 to 6,000 feet in thickness, cover 

 an area of something like 200,000 square miles, and are perhaps the 

 most stupenduous outflows of lava recorded in the earth's history. 

 The fossils in sediments interbedded with the lava, show that the 

 flows were subaerial. 



Africa. In northern Africa, the Lower Cretaceous beds are 

 confined to the northwestern mountains, but the Upper Cretaceous 

 beds, which overlie the Lower unconformably, 1 spread southward 

 and cover most of the desert, indicating great submergence in 

 the north African region. South of the Sahara, no Upper Creta- 

 ceous beds are known except in a few small areas about the coast, 

 where they rest on crystalline schists with no Lower Cretaceous 

 beds beneath, so far as now known. 



South America. In South America, the sea invaded eastern 

 Brazil, where marine Upper Cretaceous beds cover and overlap the 

 non-marine Lower Cretaceous. In some parts of Brazil, however, 

 the Upper Cretaceous is represented by fresh-water beds only. 

 Farther west, marine Upper Cretaceous beds rest unconformably 

 on the Lower Cretaceous, and form the summits of much of the 

 eastern Andes, occurring up to altitudes of 14,000 feet at many 

 points, and locally even higher. Upper Cretaceous beds also occi 

 in southern Patagonia. There appears to have been great volcani< 

 activity in the Andean system (Chile and Peru) during the hit 

 Cretaceous. 



Australia. The phenomena of Australia are in harmony witl 

 those of the other continents. The Upper Cretaceous beds ai 

 wide-spread, locally resting on formations older than the Lower 

 Cretaceous. Furthermore, the Upper Cretaceous (Desert Sand- 

 stone) is in many places unconformable on the upturned and de- 

 nuded Lower Cretaceous, showing that there were deformative 

 movements, as well as movements which changed the relations of 



1 Kayser, Geologische Formationskunde, p. 443. 



