Cratonic Basins

Abstract

Cratonic basins are sites of prolonged, broadly distributed but slow subsidence of the continental lithosphere, and are commonly filled with shallow water and terrestrial sedimentary rocks. They remain poorly understood geodynamically. A number of models have been proposed that fall into families involving cooling of stretched continental lithosphere, cooling related to mantle flow (dynamic topography), densification of the underlying lithosphere due to phase changes, the surface response to magmatism and/or plume activity, and long-wavelength buckling under in-plane stresses.The timing of initiation and spatial distribution of cratonic basin formation are linked to geodynamic phases within the overall framework of plate amalgamation and supercontinental break-up and dispersal. Many cratonic basins initiated in the Neoproterozoic and Cambrian-Ordovician. Some suites of cratonic basins originated as broad ramp-like realms of subsidence tilting down to the adjacent passive margin, and were later "individualized" by secondary processes such as, for instance, reactivation of tectonic structures during intracontinental orogeny, and the emergence of intervening arches and domes.Several different mechanisms may therefore control the geological evolution and subsidence history of cratonic basins during their long life-times. We propose that a model of low strain rate extension accompanied and followed by cooling of the underlying lithosphere satisfactorily explains the long-term subsidence history of a range of cratonic basins. However, the precise role played by dynamic topography transmitted from large-scale mantle flow in initiating or modifying the elevation history of continental interiors remains an intriguing focus for further research.

The non-uniformity of fossil preservation

“…Cratonic basins are produced by a small amount of stretching subsidence, followed by a long history of cooling subsidence that lasts for several hundred million years [29,30]. Because their total subsidence is controlled by the amount of stretching [16], subsidence rates in cratonic basins are substantially slower than those in passive margins.…”

The Mato Perso Conduit System: evidence of silicic magma transport in the southern portion of the Paraná-Etendeka LIP, Brazil

“…It erupted at ~134-131 Ma (Ernesto et al 1999, Thiede & Vasconcelos 2010, Janasi et al 2011, Florisbal et al 2014 in an intraplate setting, after a long period of marine and continental sedimentation in the Paraná Basin (for the South American counterpart). This basin is considered a large intracratonic syneclise developed in western Gondwana (Allen & Armitage 2012). In the Cretaceous, the Andean chain uplifting started in the west of this supercontinent, while continental extension accompanied by voluminous volcanism were dominant within the continent (Milani & Ramos 1998).…”

Comment on “Sequence stratigraphy and onlap history of the Donets Basin, Ukraine: Insight into Carboniferous icehouse dynamics” by J.M. Eros, I.P. Montañez, D.A. Osleger, V.I. Davydov, T.I. Nemyrovska, V.I. Poletaev and M.V. Zhykalyak [Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 313–314 (2012) 1–25]

“…As shown by some recent studies, even "stable" cratonic domains did not avoid tectonic influences in the geologic past (e.g., Müller et al, 2008;Allen and Armitage, 2012). As for the Donbass, it was involved in large-scale tectonic reorganizations on the southern periphery of Baltica linked to the development of the Variscan Belt (e.g., Laz'ko, 1975;Saintot et al, 2003;Ruban and Yoshioka, 2005;Ruban, 2007).…”