The Abitibi greenstone belt is a 2,800-to-2,600-million-year-old greenstone belt that spans across the

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

–

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

border in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is mostly made of

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

s, but also includes ultramafic rocks, mafic

intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

s, granitoid rocks, and early and middle

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

sediments.Archean greenstone belt
Retrieved on 2007-09-26

Geographical extent

The Abitibi greenstone belt is one of the world's largest

Archean The Archean ( , also spelled Archaean or Archæan), in older sources sometimes called the Archaeozoic, is the second of the four geologic eons of Earth's history of Earth, history, preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic and t ...

greenstone belts. It represents a series of subterranes that exhibit similar geological, geochemical, and isotopical signatures similar to those formed during the evolution of paired active-arc-back-arc systems. The huge 2,707-to-2,696-million-year-old Blake River Megacaldera Complex is within the belt.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abitibi Greenstone Belt Greenstone belts Neoarchean volcanism Precambrian Canada Volcanism of Ontario Volcanism of Quebec

Geographical extent

See also

References