Pilbara Craton
Old and stable part of the continental lithosphere located in Pilbara, Western Australia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Pilbara Craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Quick Facts Type, Area ...
Pilbara Craton | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Age Archean[1] | |
Type | Geological formation |
Area | Estimated 250,000 km2 (97,000 sq mi),[1] Pilbara IRBA v7 region 178,231.26 km2 (68,815.47 sq mi)[2] |
Thickness | up to 20 km (12 mi) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Granite |
Other | Greenstone |
Location | |
Region | Western Australia |
Country | Australia |
Type section | |
Named for | Pilbara |
Named by | See Pilbara#Etymology |
Map of Australia with the Pilbara region highlighted in red. |
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KEY
Pilbara Craton subregions:
PIL01 -
Chichester
PIL02 -
Fortescue
PIL03 -
Hamersley
PIL04 -
Roebourne
Carnarvon subregion:
CAR01 -
Cape Range
Gascoyne subregion:
GAS01 -
Ashburton
The Pilbara Craton is one of only two pristine Archaean 3.8–2.7 Ga (billion years ago) crusts identified on the Earth, along with the Kaapvaal Craton in South Africa. The youngest rocks are 1.7 Ga old in the historic area assigned to the Craton.[1] Both locations may have once been part of the Vaalbara supercontinent or the continent of Ur.
There are two subregional geographical classification regimes used, being:
- The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia based upon interacting geo-ecosystems
- Based on geology alone where the eastern continuous oldest portion is called the Eastern Pilbara Craton and younger surface lithologies within the larger craton have different names.