Tertiary System

E813795

Tertiary System is an older geological term referring to the now-obsolete Tertiary Period, which once denoted a major span of Earth’s Cenozoic era between the Mesozoic and Quaternary.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Tertiary System canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf chronostratigraphic unit
obsolete geological time term
appliesTo Cenozoic sedimentary rock record
associatedWithEra Cenozoic Era
linked to: Cenozoic
belongsToEon Phanerozoic Eon
classificationBasis fossil content
lithostratigraphic characteristics
conceptualOrigin early development of geologic time scale
contrastedWith Primary System
Quaternary System
Secondary System
correspondsTo Neogene Period
linked to: Neogene

Paleogene Period
linked to: Paleogene
definedRelativeTo Mesozoic System
linked to: Mesozoic Era

Quaternary System
linked to: Quaternary period
etymology derived from Latin "tertiarius" meaning "third"
follows Mesozoic Era
hasHistoricalUsage Europe
North America
hasRank system
hasTemporalPosition after Cretaceous System
before Quaternary Period
historicallyIncluded Eocene Series
linked to: Eocene

Miocene Series
linked to: Miocene

Oligocene Series
linked to: Oligocene Epoch

Paleocene Series
linked to: Paleocene

Pliocene Series
linked to: Pliocene epoch
languageOfTerm English
noLongerRecognizedBy International Commission on Stratigraphy
International Union of Geological Sciences
partOf Cenozoic Era
linked to: Cenozoic
precedes Quaternary System
refersTo Tertiary Period
replacedBy Neogene System
linked to: Neogene

Paleogene System
linked to: Paleogene
standardizedBy early geological surveys
status obsolete
subdivisionOf Cenozoic Erathem
linked to: Cenozoic
supersededInModernTimescale formal Paleogene and Neogene systems
terminologyOf geologic time scale
stratigraphy
timeSpan early Cenozoic to just before Quaternary
usedAs broad grouping of post-Mesozoic strata
usedBy 19th-century geologists
early 20th-century geologists
usedIn historical geology

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Tertiary period alternativeName Tertiary System