Relating to a shallow sea or inland sea that covers continental areas, especially used in geology to describe ancient marine environments.
From Greek 'epeira' or 'epi' (upon) combined with 'eir' (sea). The term was developed by geologists in the 19th century to classify ancient shallow seaway deposits.
The entire middle of North America was once covered by an epeiric sea called the Western Interior Seaway—imagine Kansas underwater with swimming dinosaurs!
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