The Cenozoic EraCenozoic eustasy began with a catastrophic mass extinction that wiped out both terrestrial and marine life, with an estimated 75% of plants and animals perishing in this great die-off. This event is now thought to have been in motion long before the final blow, triggered by the massive plume-induced eruption of flood basalts of the Deccan Traps, a vast igneous province primarily located on the western portion of the Indian Plate. However, the final coup de grâce came some 2 million years later from an extraterrestrial force: the impact of a ~10 km-wide asteroid that struck Earth’s surface around 66 Myr ago, marking the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene.