illustration of the upper layers of the earth showing a rift zone
Passive continental margins abutting the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico developed as a large continent, Pangea, ripped apart about 200 million years ago.
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Modified from “Parks and Plates: The Geology of our National Parks, Monuments and Seashores,” by Robert J. Lillie, New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 298 pp., 2005, www.amazon.com/dp/0134905172.