craton
/ˈkratɒn
/noun Geology
A large stable block of the earth’s crust forming the nucleus of a continent.Mobile belts of various ages seem to have stitched Africa's Archean cratons together by Himalayan-style continental collisions....
- Much of the craton remained stable up to Triassic time, with sedimentary sequences dominated by shallow-water and subaerial sediments.
- Many workers have interpreted the Zimbabwe craton as vertically accreted crust.
Derivatives
cratonic
- Finally, small, intraplate events not obviously linked to a cratonic boundary are categorized as ‘hotspots’.
- Many other mobile belts of various ages crisscross the African cratonic nuclei - these are all ripe for study.
- The complex defines a series of cratonic fragments related to the collision of the Amazonian and Sao Francisco Cratons.
Origin
1930s: alteration of kratogen in the same sense, from Greek kratos 'strength'.