Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Atlantic Shield. The Amazonian (Brazilian) Shield on the eastern bulge portion of South America. Bordering this is the Guiana Shield to the north, and the Platian Shield to the south. The Uruguayan Shield; The Baltic (Fennoscandian) Shield is located in eastern Norway, Finland and Sweden. The African (Ethiopian) Shield is located in Africa.
The São Luís and Luis Alves cratonic fragments (Brazil) are shown, but the Arequipa–Antofalla Craton, the Sahara Craton, and some minor African cratons are not. Other versions describe the Guiana Shield separated from the Amazonian Shield by a depression. The Amazonian Craton is a geologic province located in South America.
A craton is an ancient part of the Earth's continental crust which has been more or less stable since Precambrian times. Cratons whose ancient rocks are widely exposed at the surface, often with relatively subdued relief, are known as shields.
Convergent plate tectonics within the continent of Gondwana had a major influence in the Paleozoic. [9] The Maranhao intracratonic basin in Piaui and Maranhao, close to the mouth of the Amazon spans 600,000 square kilometers and filled with 2.5 kilometers of sandstone and shale from the Cambrian through the Devonian.
Indo-Australian plate – Major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and Australian plates (sometimes considered to be two separate tectonic plates) – 58,900,000 km 2 (22,700,000 sq mi) Australian plate – Major tectonic plate separated from Indo-Australian plate about 3 million years ago – 47,000,000 km 2 (18,000,000 sq mi)
The highest point in the shield is Pico da Neblina in Brazil at 2,995 metres (9,826 ft). [6] Pico da Neblina is the highest summit of the larger Neblina massif, a highly eroded sandstone plateau that straddles the Venezuela-Brazil border and that has lost the typical tabletop shape of the other tepuis in the region. [citation needed]
The Amazon Basin is located south of the Guiana Shield, north of the Central Brazilian Shield, east of the Solimões Basin, and west of the Marajó Basin. It is bound to the west by the Púrus Arch and in the east by the Gurupá Arch. The basin has an elongated shape with a WSW-ENE orientation.
Other versions describe the Guiana Shield separated from the Amazonian Shield by a depression, and the Saharan Metacraton as a part of this West African Craton. The São Francisco Craton is an ancient craton in the eastern part of South America. The craton crops out in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.