Cenozoic

Instead headward erosion excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

The Carpathian mountains were formed during the Alpine orogeny in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic by moving the ALCAPA (Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian), Tisza and Dacia plates over subducting oceanic crust.

The core of Huascarán, like much of the Cordillera Blanca, consists of Cenozoic-age granite.

Altogether, there are about 90 islets and reefs, volcanic rocks formed in the Cenozoic era, more specifically 4.6 to 2.5 million years ago.

The Cenozoic rocks represent offshore marine limestones deposited before subduction of the Tethys oceanic crust.

The rock formations have their origin during the Cenozoic era about 66 million years ago with volcanic activity.

In the interior of the area defined by these mountains and by the minor reliefs of the Hercynian massif, which completes the closure to the west, it is structured in a graben filled by Cenozoic materials, sands, clays, marls, gypsum and some limestone in the upper levels, which constitute horizons of silting up of the ancient lake that occupied the original depression.

The valley is part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, with its soils of volcanic origin mostly dating from the Upper Cenozoic.

The range was uplifted during the opening of the West Antarctic Rift System to the east, beginning about 65 million years ago in the early Cenozoic, and soon after became occupied by glaciers.

Mesozoic and Cenozoic