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The Carboniferous Period: (360 million years ago)

 

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian period, to the beginning of the Permian period. The Carboniferous was a time of glaciation, low sea level and mountain building; a minor marine extinction event occurred in the middle of the period. The name comes from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing". Many beds of coal were laid down all over the world during this period, hence the name.

 

A global drop in sea level at the end of the Devonian reversed early in the Carboniferous; this created the widespread epicontinental seas and carbonate deposition of the Mississippian. There was also a drop in south polar temperatures; southern Gondwana was glaciated throughout the period, though it is uncertain if the ice sheets were a holdover from the Devonian or not. These conditions apparently had little effect in the deep tropics, where lush coal swamps flourished within 30 degrees of the northernmost glaciers.

 

The Carboniferous was a time of active mountain-building, as the supercontinent Pangaea came together. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America–Europe (Laurussia) along the present line of eastern North America. This continental collision resulted in the Hercynian orogeny in Europe, and the Alleghenian orogeny in North America; it also extended the newly-uplifted Appalachians southwestward as the Ouachita Mountains.

 

In the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. Most of the Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea was now assembled, although North China (which would collide in the Latest Carboniferous), and South China continents were still separated from Laurasia. The Late Carboniferous Pangaea was shaped like an "O."

 

 

Climate

 

The early part of the Carboniferous was mostly warm; in the later part of the Carboniferous, the climate cooled. Glaciations in Gondwana, triggered by Gondwana's southward movement, continued into the Permian and because of the lack of clear markers and breaks, the deposits of this glacial period are often referred to as Permo-Carboniferous in age.

 

 

The End of the Carboniferous Period

In the middle Carboniferous, an extinction event occurred that was probably caused by climate change. A less intense extinction event also occurred at the end of the Carboniferous.

 

 

Map of the Earth during the Carboniferous Period

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paleozoic Era

Mesozoic Era