THE TRIASSIC PERIOD. 37 



at the same time. This is in keeping with the physical conditions 

 which existed in the continent almost uninterruptedly after the begin- 

 ning of the Paleozoic era. Near the close of the Trias (Rhsetic), the 

 differences between the eastern and southern Alps on the one hand, 

 and northern and western Europe on the other, became much less 

 distinctly marked. 



The marine phase of the system reaches its greatest thickness 

 (about 13,000 feet) in the southern Alps, where the deposits are 

 thought to have been made in a great geosyncline, and the beds were 

 subsequently made into mountains as in the case of the Appalachians. 



The non-marine formations of red color so characteristic of the 

 system both in North America and Europe afford another striking 

 inter-continental analogy. 



Asia. — The marine phase of the system foimd at various points 

 south of the Alps is continued eastward through the Carpathian and 

 Balkan Mountains to Asia, where it is found in Asia Minor, in the 

 Himalayas, the Salt Range, and still farther east. The Trias of 

 Afghanistan is partly non-marine, and contains some coal. The Trias 

 of the Deccan also is non-marine, and constitutes the upper part of 

 the great Gondwana system, of which the lower parts (Talchir, etc.,) 

 are Carboniferous or Permian. 



The Marine Trias is also found in the high latitudes of Asia and 

 Europe, including Japan, eastern Siberia, and numerous islands north 

 of Eurasia (Spitzbergen, Bear Island, the New Siberian Islands, etc.). 



In Asia the Trias is generally conformable above the Permian, and 

 beneath the Jurassic. The relations of the Permian in India suggest 

 that the great changes marking the transition from the Paleozoic to 

 the Mesozoic occurred at the close of the Carboniferous, or during 

 the Permian, rather than at the close of the latter. 



South America. — In South America no marine deposits of Triassic 

 age are known east of the Andes, from which it is inferred that this 

 part of the continent was out of the sea. Non-marine Triassic beds 

 are known in Argentina and Chili, where they are coal-bearing. 1 Marine 

 Triassic beds are known at various points in the Andes, in such positions 

 as to show that the site of parts of this great system of mountains 

 was at this time beneath the sea. 



1 Kayser, op. cit., p. 308. 



