The Amazonian Craton is a

geologic province A geologic province is a spatial entity with common geologic attributes. A province may include a single dominant structural element such as a basin or a fold belt, or a number of contiguous related elements. Adjoining provinces may be simila ...

located in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. It occupies a large portion of the central, north and eastern part of the continent and represents one of Earth's largest

craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "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 an ...

ic regions. The

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

and Central Brazil Shield (Guaporé Shield) constitute respectively the northern and southern exhumed parts of the craton. Between the two shields lies the Amazon Rift, a zone of weakness within the craton. Smaller cratons of Precambrian rocks south of the Amazonian Shield are the

Río de la Plata Craton The Rio de la Plata Craton (RPC) is a medium-sized continental block found in Uruguay, eastern Argentina and southern Brazil. During its complex and protracted history it interacted with a series other blocks and is therefore considered importan ...

and the

São Francisco 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. It includes a number of blocks of Archean basement, separated by orogenic belts. The b ...

, which lies to the east. The Río Apa Craton at the

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

-Brazil border is considered be likely just the southern part of the Amazonian Craton. The rocks of Río Apa were deformed during the

Sunsás orogeny The Sunsás orogeny was an ancient orogeny active during the Late Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic and currently preserved as the Sunsás orogen in the Amazonian Craton in South America. About 85% of the belt is covered by Phanerozoic sediment ...

. It has been suggested that the Late Mesoproterozoic– Early Neoproterozoic aged Sveconorwegian Orogen in Fennoscandia could have been caused by a continent–continent collision between the Amazonia and

Baltica Baltica is a paleocontinent that formed in the Paleoproterozoic and now constitutes northwestern Eurasia, or Europe north of the Trans-European Suture Zone and west of the Ural Mountains. The thick core of Baltica, the East European Craton, ...

. The question is open if Telemarkia

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust (geology), crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and Accretion (geology), accreted or "Suture (geology), sutured" to crust lying on another pla ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

was derived from the Amazonian Craton but this possibility does not imply necessarily that there was a continental collision.

See also

References

Further reading