Amazon Basin (sedimentary basin)

Satellite imagery of northern South America. The basin is located in the center and center-right of the picture.

The Amazon Basin is a major sedimentary basin located roughly at the middle and lower course of the Amazon River, south the Guiana Shield and north of the Central Brazilian Shield. The basin develops on a rift that originated possibly about 550 million years ago during the Cambrian. Parts of the rift were reactivated during the opening of the South Atlantic.^[1]

The basin has an elongate shape with a SWW-NEE orientation. It long axis runs from the vicinity of Manaus to the area near the confluence of Xingu River with the Amazon River.

References

↑ Burke, Kevin C.; Lytwyn, Jennifer (1993). "Origin of the Rift Under the Amazon Basin as a Result of Continental Collision During Pan-African Time". International Geology Review. Taylor & Francis. 35 (10): 881–897. doi:10.1080/00206819309465563. Retrieved 24 November 2015.

Major South American geological features

Tectonic plates	Antarctic Plate Caribbean Plate Cocos Plate Nazca Plate Scotia Plate South American Plate

Cratons and shields	Amazonian Craton Arequipa-Antofalla Craton Atlantic Shield Central Brazilian Shield Guiana Shield Paranapanema Block Río Apa Craton Río de la Plata Craton São Francisco Craton Uruguayan Shield

Faults and shear zones	Atacama Fault Boconó Fault Cochabamba Fault Zone Cordillera Blanca Fault Zone Dolores-Guayaquil Megashear Domeyko Fault El Pilar Fault System El Tigre Fault Gastre Fault Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone Magallanes-Fagnano Fault Morón Fault System Oca-Ancón Fault System Pernambuco Fault San Ramón Fault Sarandí del Yí Shear Zone Sierra Ballena Shear Zone Sobral Fault Trans Brazilian Lineament

Rifts and grabens	Aguapeí Aulacogen Amazon Rift Asunción Rift Cuyo Rift Espino Graben Neuquén Rifts Paramirim Aulacogen Salta Rifts

Sedimentary basins	Altiplano Basin Amazon Basin Andean foreland basins Central Brazil Basin Colorado Basin Cuyo Basin Eastern Venezuela Basin Golfo San Jorge Basin Magallanes Basin Malvinas Basin Neuquén Basin Pantanal Basin Paraíba Basin Paraná Basin Salta Basin Solimões Basin

Orogens	Andean Orogen Brasiliano Orogens Cariri Velhos Belt Famatinian Orogen Gondwanide Orogen Juruá Orogen Pampean Orogen San Rafael Orogen Sunsás Orogen Terra Australis Orogen Tilcarian Orogen

Volcanoes and hotspots	Andean Volcanic Belt Ascension hotspot Caribbean large igneous province Central Atlantic magmatic province Fernando hotspot Galápagos hotspot Juan Fernández hotspot Paraná and Etendeka traps San Felix hotspot Trindade hotspot

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