Old and stable part of the continental lithosphere
Cratons of South America and Africa during the Triassic Period when the two continents were joined as part of the Pangea supercontinent
A craton (/ˈkreɪtɒn/KRAYT-on, /ˈkrætɒn/KRAT-on, or /ˈkreɪtən/KRAY-tən[1][2][3]; from Greek: κράτοςkratos "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates; the exceptions occur where geologically recent rifting events have separated cratons and created passive margins along their edges. Cratons are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by younger sedimentary rock. They have a thick crust and deep lithospheric roots that extend as much as several hundred kilometres into Earth's mantle.
^"Definition of craton in North American English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
^"Definition of craton in British and Commonwealth English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
A craton ( /ˈkreɪtɒn/ KRAYT-on, /ˈkrætɒn/ KRAT-on, or /ˈkreɪtən/ KRAY-tən; from Greek: κράτος kratos "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental...
tectonics. The Indian Craton can be divided into five major cratons as such: Aravalli Craton (Marwar-Mewar Craton or Western Indian Craton): Covers Rajasthan...
Archean supercontinent consisting of the Kaapvaal Craton (now in eastern South Africa) and the Pilbara Craton (now in north-western Western Australia). E....
Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia...
The Kaapvaal Craton (centred on the Limpopo Province in South Africa), along with the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas...
Archaean cratons, including the Siberian Craton, with its Anabar/Aldan shields in Siberia, and the Slave, Wyoming, Superior, and North Atlantic cratons in North...
The Amazonian Craton is a geologic province located in South America. It occupies a large portion of the central, north and eastern part of the continent...
Amazonian Craton Guiana Shield Amazonian Shield São Francisco Craton (Congo Craton) Rio Apa Craton Río de la Plata Craton Arequipa–Antofalla Craton São Luís...
The Dharwar Craton is an Archean continental crust craton formed between 3.6-2.5 billion years ago (Ga), which is located in southern India and considered...
The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised...
Fennoscandia (Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian: Fennoskandia; Russian: Фенноскандия, romanized: Fennoskandiya), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is the geographical...
The Kalahari Craton is a craton, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, that occupies large portions of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia...
The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton that constitutes a major part of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins...
The East European Craton (EEC) is the core of the Baltica proto-plate and consists of three crustal regions/segments: Fennoscandia to the northwest, Volgo-Uralia...
Jesse Craton "Jess" Edwards, Jr. is an American politician, who is a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He represents the Rockingham...
The Slave Craton is an Archaean craton in the north-western Canadian Shield, in Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The Slave Craton includes the 4.03 Ga-old...
The Wyoming Craton is a craton in the west-central United States and western Canada – more specifically, in Montana, Wyoming, southern Alberta, southern...
The Churchill Craton is the northwest section of the Canadian Shield and stretches from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta to northern Nunavut. It has a...
The Superior Craton is a stable crustal block covering Quebec, Ontario, and southeast Manitoba in Canada, and northern Minnesota in the United States....
The Congo Craton, covered by the Palaeozoic-to-recent Congo Basin, is an ancient Precambrian craton that with four others (the Kaapvaal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania...
The North China Craton is a continental crustal block with one of Earth's most complete and complex records of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic processes...
The Rae Craton is an Archean craton located in northern Canada, north of the Superior Craton. The Ungava Peninsula, situated on the northeast portion of...
associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies. The name comes from the green hue imparted...
caused extensive melting underneath the Indian Craton. The melting broke through the surface of the craton in a massive flood basalt event, creating the...
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