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LITHOEN

Geological region

Canadian Shield

Also known as Laurentian Shield

The great exposure of Precambrian basement across northern and central Canada — the surface expression of the cratons beneath, not a separate body from them. The Muskox intrusion, the Mackenzie dyke swarm and the Coppermine River flood basalts lie on its northwestern part.

Classification

region kind
shield
domain realm
northAmerica

How this record is known

1
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.
1
Interpretation
Reached by reasoning from evidence, or produced by a named model.

2 of 2 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

EstablishedOne magmatic event expressed as an intrusion, a dyke swarm and a flood basalt field.

The 1.27 Ga Muskox intrusion on the northwestern Canadian Shield is considered coeval and possibly cogenetic with the 1.27 Ga Mackenzie dyke swarm and the Coppermine River continental flood basalts — an intrusion, a dyke swarm and a lava field treated as three expressions of one magmatic event.

  • precision note: "Coeval and possibly cogenetic" is the source’s wording: the same age is established, the same origin is inferred.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Schulte 2012 Primary authority

InferredThe shield is the exposed part of the craton; the craton continues under cover.

A shield is not a smaller or different thing from a craton: it is the part of one where the Precambrian basement reaches the surface. The craton continues beneath the cover that hides the rest of it, and a map of the shield is a map of exposure, not of the block.

  • method: Follows from the sources’ own usage: the chromite model places the Muskox intrusion on the northwestern Canadian Shield and the Burakovsky intrusion on the East Karelian block of the Fennoscandian Shield, in both cases naming the exposure rather than the block beneath.
  • precision note: Lithoen encodes the distinction as a dedicated relation, EXPOSED_PORTION_OF, rather than as ordinary containment, so that it cannot be flattened into "a shield is a kind of craton".

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Schulte 2012 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-07. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.