Sarmatian craton

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In geology and tectonics, the Sarmatian craton is the southern segment/region of the East European craton. The craton contains Archaean rocks 2.8 to 3.7 billion years old. During the Carboniferous Period the craton was rifted apart by the Dneiper Donnets rift. As a result, geomorphologically the cratonic area is split by the Donbass Fold Belt, also known as a part of the large Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets aulacogen, which transects Sarmatia, dividing it into the Ukrainian Massif or shield on the southwest and the Voronezh Massif to the northeast.

Sarmatia is made up of several once independent Archaen land masses that developed at 3.7–2.9, 3.2–3.0, and ~2.7 Ga. 2.3–2.1 Ga orogenic belts now separate these land masses. Sarmatia's northwestern margin has an extensive continental magmatic arc dating back to ~2.0 Ga. At ~200 Ma Sarmatia collided with Fennoscandia.

[edit] References

• Bogdanova, Svetlana V. (2005) "The East European Craton: Some Aspects of the Proterozoic Evolution in its South-West." Polskie Towarzystwo Mineralogiczne - Prace Specjalne Mineralogical Society of Poland – Special Papers, Zeszyt 26, 2005; Vol. 26. Online: http://www.geo.uw.edu.pl/PTMINSP/2005/018.pdf
• Svetlana Bogdanova (Lund) and EUROBRIDGE, Palaeoproterozoic Accretion of Sarmatia and Fennoscandia
• Dmitry A. Ruban and Shoichi Yoshioka, Late Paleozoic - Early Mesozoic Tectonic Activity within the Donbass (Russian Platform)