The Tertiary in New York, US

Paleontology and geology

During the Tertiary, a warm climate promoted chemical weathering and erosion of New York’s rocks. Periodic uplift and significant erosion shaped much of the landscape during this time. Though Tertiary deposits are thick along the continental shelf and most parts of the Coastal Plain, there are very few deposits from this time left in New York. Most of the sediments deposited during the Tertiary were scraped up and pushed south by Quaternary glaciers. Uplift during this time created the Adirondack Mountains of New York, which are composed mainly of exposed Precambrian rock.