greenstone belts
Ancient volcanic terranes
Greenstone belts are ancient formations of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks found in the oldest parts of continental crust, typically 2.5 to 3.5 billion years old.
The name comes from the greenish tint of altered basaltic rocks within them.
These belts are significant in geology for preserving evidence of early Earth conditions and often contain gold and other mineral deposits: The Abitibi greenstone belt in Canada is one of the world's most productive gold-mining regions.
- gold depositsConcentrated precious metal formations
- basaltFine-grained volcanic stone
- schistPlaty-mineral metamorphic rock
- cratonStable ancient continental core
- gneissFoliated metamorphic rock
amphibolite · Archean · geochronology · plate tectonics · stratigraphy · quartzite · lithosphere · granite · metamorphic · Precambrian · ancient · ore · volcanic · folded · crust · continental drift · shield · paleogeography
- geologybedrock, fault lines, faults, rock, basalt
- Early Earthprimordial soup, early life, abiogenesis, prokaryotes, single-celled organisms
- African geologyGreat Rift Valley, Niger Delta, Rift Valley, Fouta Djallon, Afar Triangle
- ancient rocksgneiss, Canadian Shield, stromatolites, shields
- Archean Eonstromatolites
- PrecambrianArchean, Proterozoic, stromatolites, craton, Ur