Mississippian
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Axis scale: millions of years ago.
The Mississippian was a subperiod of the Carboniferous period lasting from roughly 359 to 318 Ma (million years ago). As with most other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified, but the exact start and end dates are uncertain by a few million years. The Mississippian is so named because rocks from this age are exposed in the Mississippi River valley.
In North America, where the interval consists primarily of marine limestones, it is treated as a full-fledged geologic period between the Devonian and the Pennsylvanian. In Europe, the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian are one more-or-less continuous sequence of lowland continental deposits and are grouped together as the Carboniferous period. The Appalachian Mountains formed during the Mississippian Epoch.
[edit] Subdivisions
| Early Mississippian | (359.2 ± 2.5 – 345.3 ± 2.1 Ma) |
| Middle Mississippian | (345.3 ± 2.1 – 326.4 ± 1.6 Ma) |
| Late Mississippian | (326.4 ± 1.6 – 318.1 ± 1.3 Ma) |
[edit] External links
| Carboniferous period | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippian | Pennsylvanian | ||||
| Lower/Early | Middle | Upper/Late | Lower/Early | Middle | Upper/Late |
| Tournaisian | Viséan | Serpukhovian | Bashkirian | Moscovian | Kasimovian | Gzhelian |
