New Mexico . . . Underwater!

A reader writes:

I have been trying to find something on line about New Mexico being underwater at one time. I recently visited N.M. and was told exactly that. When I came home I mentioned it to one of the teachers I work with and they didn’t believe me. I looked on line and can find nothing to support my claim…. feeling a little stupid. Help!

You’ll be happy to learn that what you were told in New Mexico is true . . . at least according to the common scientific understanding.

In fact, according to the standard account, this part of the country has been underwater more than once.

To document this, HERE’S A PAGE ON THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO (EXCERPTS):

A picture of ancient New Mexico during the Precambrian is one of volcanic activity and mountain building, with periodic episodes of submersion under the sea. . . .

During the Paleozoic, most of the North America was part of a large landmass called Pangaea. The state was covered by a vast shallow sea, from which large deposits of limestone, sandstone and shale accumulated. These limestone beds can now be found in many areas of New Mexico, often containing small marine invertebrate fossils such as brachiopods, crinoids and trilobites. During the later part of the Paleozoic, the ancestral Rocky Mountains formed, uplifting the central and northern part of the state. Toward the southern part of New Mexico, a great barrier reef developed. As the reef was cut off from the sea, the evaporation of the water left deposits of salt, potash and gypsum that can be found today. . . .

In the Mesozoic era . . . the inland sea once again returned and New Mexico was on the western shore of a great shallow ocean covering most of the central United States. . . .

Hope this helps!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

9 thoughts on “New Mexico . . . Underwater!”

  1. Excellent. So my house’ll be water front property when the ice caps melt and the sea swells from the heating.
    If you go around New Mexico you can find these charcoal grey rocks that used to be the sediment on the bottom of the ocean. You can usually crack them open and find fossils in them. There are also places where you can find ant mounds where there are little baby shark teeth that the ants have drug out in large quantities.

  2. Lots of marine fossils here in Arkansas, too. It’s cool. My kids love to find the little distinct spirals and shellfish impressions.

  3. There are lots of marine fossils in New York too. I don’t think we were part of that Mesozoic (that’s the time of the dinosaurs by the way) inland sea but we were definitely underwater at some point. In fact, I think everywhere on earth has been underwater at some point if you go back to the Precambrian.

  5. Don’t know why, but on Mt. Lemmon, which is 9,000 ft. compared to Tucson’s 2,300, there are marine shells.

  7. I used to pick up pieces of crinoids in the Sandia Mountains just outside of Albuquerque when I was a kid. I was particularly fond of them because some of them could be used as natural beads, if the mouth/gullet hole in the center had not filled in.

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