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Tertiary

Tertiary

1 8.9
An old name for the geologic time about 63 million to 2 million years ago between the Cretaceous and Quaternary
  • noun
  • /ˈtɜrʃiˌɛri/
  • Archaic
translation icon : Terciario
  • Tertiary Period (65 to 1.65 million years ago)...
  • tertiary care

Examples

  • So the Cretaceous Tertiary impact, the Cheekshalub impact has a central peak and it's directly in the center.

  • As yields from placer mining declined, miners looked to the gold-bearing Tertiary beds exposed along the canyon walls beneath vast amounts of overburden.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Oklahoma's land surface sloped down to the east and southeast, and extensive deposits of Tertiary sand and gravel were washed in by large rivers flowing from the newly formed Rocky Mountains.

    Blog text (14)
  • The layer marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and tertiary periods.

  • Extensive tertiary age rocks were recognized in the Paris Basin, which is the area around Paris, France.

  • This phenomenon stems from a fault in the northeastern seismic belt dating from the late tertiary period.

Synonyms

Tertiary period
vsTertiary
  • Archaic
8.1

A time about 63 million to 2 million years ago after the Cretaceous and before the Quaternary

is the older shorter name used for that same geologic interval

Compounds

tertiary syphilis
  • Specialized
1 9.1

A late serious stage of an infection spread by sex that damages major organs like the brain and heart

Tertiary period
  • Archaic
8.1

A time about 63 million to 2 million years ago after the Cretaceous and before the Quaternary

Surface Forms

Tertiary singular
Tertiaries plural

Etymology

Tertiary comes from the Latin tertius, meaning 'third'. Early geologists divided Earth's past into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, so the Tertiary was the 'third' long period between the Cretaceous and the Quaternary.