Mississippian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Era | Period | Epoch | Start Million years ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesozoic | Triassic | Lower Triassic | 252.17 |
| Palaeozoic | Permian | 298.9 | |
| Carboniferous | Pennsylvanian | 323.2 | |
| Mississippian | 358.9 | ||
| Devonian | 419.2 | ||
| Silurian | 443.4 | ||
| Ordovician | 485.4 | ||
| Cambrian | 541 | ||
| Neoproterozoic | Ediacaran | 635 | |
The Mississippian is the lower part of the Carboniferous period in geology. It started about 359 million years ago, after the Devonian period. It ended 323.3 million years ago,[1] and was followed by the upper part of the Carboniferous: the Pennsylvanian. The names Mississippian and Pennsylvanian are used in North America, because they suit the strata there. Geologists from elsewhere mostly use simply 'Carboniferous', or they use the official terms for stages, as defined by the International Commission for Stratigraphy.
During the Mississippian the sea level was high, and much of North America was invaded by a shallow sea. The strata consist mostly of a sequence of marine limestones.
References[change]
| Source | International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2013. International Commission on Stratigraphy, retrieved 8 April 2013. Divisions of geologic time – major chronostratigraphic and geochronologic units USGS, retrieved 8 April 2013. |
