- Key People:
- Charles Lapworth
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Sea level
The rate of seafloor spreading that followed the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia near the end of the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 541 million years ago) peaked during the Ordovician Period. Tall oceanic ridges produced by this activity raised the average elevation of the seafloor and flooded parts of many continents, creating vast shallow seas within their interiors and at their margins. During the Early and Late Ordovician epochs, almost all of North America was submerged under these epicontinental seas.
Sea level fluctuated continuously throughout the Ordovician. At the broadest scale, sea level was highest during the Early and Late Ordovician epochs and may have been up to 200 metres (about 660 feet) lower during the Middle Ordovician Epoch. Numerous shorter-term fluctuations were superimposed on this broad rise and fall, with each fluctuation typically lasting one to five million years. Additional minor fluctuations of a few metres or less, occurring on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, have also been identified. The causes of all of these changes in sea level are difficult to identify. Some may have been driven by variations in the rates of plate motion, some by glaciation, some by local tectonic uplift or subsidence, and some by changes in groundwater storage capacity. The end of the Ordovician Period is marked by a pronounced fall in sea level of nearly 160 metres (525 feet), which was triggered by the rapid expansion of continental ice sheets on Gondwana.