Misplaced Pages

Platform (geology)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
A continental area covered by relatively flat or gently tilted, mainly sedimentary strata
Geologic provinces of the world (USGS)
  Shield   Platform   Orogen   Basin   Large igneous province   Extended crust Oceanic crust:  0–20 Ma   20–65 Ma   >65 Ma

In geology, a platform is a continental area covered by relatively flat or gently tilted, mainly sedimentary strata, which overlie a basement of consolidated igneous or metamorphic rocks of an earlier deformation. Platforms, shields and the basement rocks together constitute cratons. Platform sediments can be classified into the following groups: a "protoplatform" of metamorphosed sediments at the bottom, a "quasiplatform" of slightly deformed sediments, a "cataplatform", and an "orthoplatform" at the top. The Mesoproterozoic Jotnian sediments of the Baltic area are examples of a "quasiplatform". The post-Ordovician rocks of the South American Platform are examples of an orthoplatform.

See also

References

  1. Parker, Sybil P. (Ed.). 1997. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Geology and Mineralogy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  2. Nagornji, M.A.; Nikolaev, V.G. (2005). "The quasiplatform sediments of the East European Platform". Russian Journal of Earth Sciences. 7 (5): 1–12. doi:10.2205/2005ES000171.
  3. de Almeida, F. F. M.; et al. (1976). "The Upper Precambrian of South America". Boletim IG-USP. 7. Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 2015-09-29.


Stub icon

This plate tectonics article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: