Cenozoic Era

Cenozoic Era, third of the major eras of Earth’s history. It was the interval of time during which the continents assumed their modern configuration and geographic positions and during which Earth’s flora and fauna evolved toward those of the present. Derived from the Greek for recent life, it reflects the sequential development and diversification of life on Earth from the Paleozoic through the Mesozoic. Today, the Cenozoic is internationally accepted as the youngest of the three subdivisions of the fossiliferous part of Earth history. Cenozoic rocks are extensively developed on all the continents, particularly on lowland plains. They are generally less consolidated than older rocks, although some are indurated as a result of high pressure due to deep burial, chemical diagenesis, or high temperature-namely, metamorphism. Sedimentary rocks predominate during the Cenozoic, and more than half the world’s petroleum occurs in such rocks of this age. Igneous rocks are represented by extensive early Cenozoic flood basalts and the late Cenozoic flood basalts of the Columbia River in Washington, as well as by numerous volcanoes in the circum-Pacific System and ocean island chains such as Hawaii.

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