Re: The Western Interior Seaway: Riding out the storms

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Kris Kripchak (MariusRomanus@aol.com) wrote [on the vrtpaleo list, forwarded by
Phil] that he did not like using computer models, so I am curious:

  How are we going to assess the variables and determine the structure of the
seaway and its effect on the environment without using a system to input and
analyze all the diverse metrics needed to create a likelihood? It is not as
simple as saying "if the water was so deep, then so happens." As you wrote,
there are so many variables and unknowns, that a computer model may be the only
means of generating a likelihood analysis of the situation. If not, then why
the distrust or disuse of the model? Afterall, this is the means by which
meteorological studies are made. Kris also made a statement about the 1-2km
surface winds ... are these the top suggested numbers, or do they get higher on
an annual mean, and how does this effect the gyre and thus the oxygen mixture
seasonally?

  But I have another question. What would the effect of severe surface weather
have on the shallow or deep effects of deposition on the "sea" floor? How would
this translate to the sedimentary layers and indeed, the preservation of the
fossils themselves found throughout the midwest during times indicated as
having been inundated (Turonian through Paleocene). Is there a plot of
specimens by locality over the US through time that may help model deposition
environment preferences for some fossils, but not for others?

  Of course, bathic preference for mosasaurs, ammonites and plesiosaurs is also
a curiousity.

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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