Slave Craton

Archaean craton in the north-western Canadian Shield, in Northwest Territories and Nunavut

The Slave Craton is an Archaean craton in the north-western Canadian Shield, in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Palaeomap of North American and Scandinavian cratons, basement rocks, and orogenic belts. Slave Craton is in the top left in red and bright green

It has some of the oldest rocks on Earth.[1]

It has ~2.73–2.63 Ga (billion years-old) greenstones and turbidite sequences. These are the geologic deposits of a turbidity current. This type of gravity flow put vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean.

Large parts of the craton are underlain by even older gneiss and granitoid units.

References

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  1. Bleeker W; Davis B; Ketchum J; Stern R; Sircombe K; Waldron J. 2004. The Slave Craton from on top: the crustal view. Geological Survey of Canada.