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Mississippian

The '''Mississippian''' is an epoch in the geologic timescale or a series (stratigraphy)|series of the geologic record. It is the earliest/lowermost of two divisions of the Carboniferous period (geology)|period lasting from roughly 359 to 318 annum|Ma (million years ago). As with most other geochronology|geochronologic units, the stratum|rock beds that define the Mississippian 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|Mississippi River valley. In North America, where the interval consists primarily of marine limestones, it was in the past 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 system (stratigraphy)|system, and sometimes called the ''Upper Carboniferous'' and ''Lower Carboniferous'' instead. During the Mississippian Epoch an important phase of orogeny occurred in the Appalachian Mountains.

Subdivisions

In the official geologic timescale, the Mississippian is subdivided into three stages:
- Tournaisian
- Visean
- Serpukhovian The first two come from European stratigraphy, the last is from Russian stratigraphy. Besides Europe and Russia, there are many local subdivions that are used as alternatives for the international timescale. In the North American system, the Mississippian is subdivided into four stages:
- Kinderhookian (the lower two-thirds of the Tournaisian)
- Osagean (top of the Tournaisian and bottom of the Visean)
- Meramecian (middle Visean)
- Chesterian (top of the Visean plus the Serpukhovian)

External links

- The Carboniferous
- Geologic Time Periods Category:Carboniferous|*

Refereneces

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