Tertiary Period: Quick Facts

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Messinian Stage

Eocene paleogeography

A detailed geologic time scale chart displaying Earth's history from the Hadean Eon over 4.5 billion years ago to the present, organized by eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages with color-coded columns and corresponding dates in millions of years.

Tertiary paleogeography

Cenozoic migration routes

Map of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding regions, showing physical features such as sea basins and depths, major coastal cities, country boundaries, and islands. The map includes a small locator inset highlighting the Mediterranean area within Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Perito Moreno Glacier

Map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico highlighting the location and circular outline of the Chicxulub crater, which is about 180 kilometers in diameter and partly extends into the Gulf of Mexico. The map also shows nearby cities such as Merida, Cancun, Campeche, and Playa del Carmen, as well as international borders with Belize and Guatemala. An inset globe marks the region's location in the Americas.

The Chicxulub asteroid

Learn how the radiometric rubidium-strontium dating technique is used to determine the age of rock particles

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Topics

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum Paleogene Period Neogene Period fossil K–T extinction Laramide orogeny Alpine orogeny nummulite Cenozoic Era Quaternary

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Key People

Alexandre Brongniart, plaster medallion by David d'Angers

Alexandre Brongniart

French geologist

Edward Drinker Cope, c. 1889

Edward Drinker Cope

American paleontologist

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Jean-Baptiste-Julien d’ Omalius d’Halloy

Belgian geologist