Evidence for an extensive Phanerozoic sediment cover on the Canadian and Fenno-Scandian shields
Examination of the age and diameter of 75 terrestrial meteorite impact craters taken from platform and shield regions throughout the world suggest that both the Canadian and Fenno-Scandian Shields were covered by a sedimentary blanket during a portion of the Phanerozoic. Subsequent erosion, fostered perhaps by a combination of glacial and tectonic processes, has exposed both of these shields to reveal an anomalous distribution of craters through time. The primary evidence for sedimentary cover and subsequent erosion is in the form of a 280 Myr gap in the record of craters less than 15 km in diameter. Small craters of Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian age are found in shield regions, suggesting either a thin or non-existent sediment cover during this period. However, there is no record of small diameter craters on either shield of Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic age (400 to 120 Myr). This 280 Myr gap suggests that the shields were protected from smaller body impacts by a sedimentary cover. In contrast, the record of impacts on platform sediments implies no such hiatus in the infall of cosmic bodies to the earth's surface between the Devonian and the Early Cretaceous. Subsequent erosion, perhaps by Early Cretaceous time, exposed the shields to further bombardment. In addition, pre-Devonian craters became exhumed. Thus, the record of impact craters suggests that the Canadian and Fenno-Scandian Shields were covered by sediments while part of Pangaea.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Rhode Island, Narrragansett (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6457347
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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