page_title: Geology of Russia
section_title: Siberian craton
hierarchical_section_title: Geology of Russia / Siberian craton
caption_attribution_description: English: Location of the Siberian shield (and outcrops of the Siberian craton) on a satellite image of Asia.
context_page_description: The geology of Russia, the world's largest country, which extends over much of northern Eurasia, consists of several stable cratons and sedimentary platforms bounded by orogenic belts.
  European Russia is on the East European craton, at the heart of which is a complex of igneous and metamorphic rocks dating back to the Precambrian. The craton is bounded on the east by the long tract of compressed and highly deformed rock that constitutes the Ural orogen. In Asiatic Russia, the area between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei River is the young West Siberian Plain. East of the Yenisei River is the ancient Central Siberian Plateau, extending to the Lena River. East of the Lena River there is the Verhoyansk-Chukotka collision zone, stretching to the Chukchi Peninsula.
  The orogens within Russia belong to the Baltic Shield, the Timanides, the Urals, the Altai Mountains, the Ural-Mongolian epipaleozoic orogen and the northwestern part of the Pacific orogeny. The country's highest mountains, the Caucasus, are confined to younger orogens.
context_section_description: The Siberian craton (or West-Siberian craton) coincides with the Central Siberian plateau that lies between the Yenisei and Lena rivers. In the west it borders the West Siberian basin. The Yenisei-Katanga trough lies in the north. In the south lies the Central Asian fold belt, the Baikal rift and the Mongol-Okhotsk fold belt. The eastern border is the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma orogenic system.
  The Siberian craton formed in the Precambrian and is largely covered by sedimentary and volcanic rocks of more recent age. Precambrian rocks are exposed in two distinct uplifts, the Anabar massif in the northeast and the Aldanian shield in the southeast. Other basement outcrops include Olenyok, Sharyzhalgay and the raised Southern Yenisei horst.
  Basins include the Tunguska basin, the Vilui basin (Viluiskaya-Tunguska syncline), the Low-Angara (Angara-Lena trough) basin, and the Kan-Taseeva basin.
  The volcanically produced Siberian Traps, the largest flood basalts of the Phanerozoic (the last 542 million years), mantle about 40 percent of the Siberian craton.
  The Siberian craton is known for its large mineral resources. The town of Norilsk is the world's largest supplier of nickel. In 2011 one-fifth of the world's production of this metal came from Russia.
caption: Central Siberian Plateau's location in Asia.
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