Geological history of Earth
The remainder was the world-ocean known as Panthalassa ("all the sea"). All the deep-ocean sediments laid down during the Triassic have disappeared through subduction of oceanic plates; thus, very little is known of the Triassic open ocean. The supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic--especially late in the period--but had not yet separated. The first nonmarine sediments in the rift that marks the initial break-up of Pangea--which separated New Jersey from Morocco--are of Late Triassic age; in the U.S., these thick sediments comprise the Newark Supergroup. Because of the limited shoreline of one super-continental mass, Triassic marine deposits are globally relatively rare; despite their prominence in Western Europe, where the Triassic was first studied. In North America, for example, marine deposits are limited to a few exposures in the west. Thus Triassic stratigraphy is mostly based on organisms living in lagoons and hypersaline environments, such as Estheria crustaceans and terrestrial vertebrates.
What was occurring to Pangaea in the late Triassic?
Pangaea was rifting
The supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic--especially late in the period--but had not yet separated.
Pangaea