Earth Geology Geologic Time Scale Mississippian Period

Mississippian Period

The Mississippian time period lasted from 360 to 325 million years ago, a time span of 35 million years. The term Mississippian was first used in the late 1800s to describe a sequence of rocks in, of all places, Mississippi. In Europe, the time period just above the Devonian was named the Carboniferous because of the abundant coal beds found in them. However, in the United States geologists divided the Carboniferous into two periods, the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian. These Mississippian rocks were defined based on a particular type of fossil assemblage contained within them. They are located above the rocks of the Devonian System and below the rocks of the Pennsylvanian System.