Amazon Basin (sedimentary basin)

Satellite imagery of northern South America. The basin is located in the center and center-right of the picture.

The Amazon Basin is a major sedimentary basin located roughly at the middle and lower course of the Amazon River, south the Guiana Shield and north of the Central Brazilian Shield. The basin develops on a rift that originated possibly about 550 million years ago during the Cambrian. Parts of the rift were reactivated during the opening of the South Atlantic.[1]

The basin has an elongate shape with a SWW-NEE orientation. It long axis runs from the vicinity of Manaus to the area near the confluence of Xingu River with the Amazon River.

References

  1. ↑ Burke, Kevin C.; Lytwyn, Jennifer (1993). "Origin of the Rift Under the Amazon Basin as a Result of Continental Collision During Pan-African Time". International Geology Review. Taylor & Francis. 35 (10): 881–897. doi:10.1080/00206819309465563. Retrieved 24 November 2015.


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