大陸地盾是大陸板塊在古老的造山運動中經過熔合的過程，岩石因受侵蝕作用而使地表呈現地勢低緩、穩定、平坦等典型特徵。這些地區的大陸地質通常十分堅硬且體積單一巨大，並不受大陸漂移 (continental drift) 作用而分裂成塊的影響。地球表面最原始的岩石來自地盾，接近40億年之齡。舉個例子來說，有些在加拿大西北部大奴隸湖附近的加拿大地盾 (Canadian Shield) 發現的片麻岩 (Gneiss) 有可能出現在39億6000萬年前。而西非地盾 (West Africa shield) 里的卡巴拉片麻岩大概有35億7000萬年。印度次大陸大部分的南半岛是由印度半岛地盾(India Peninsular Shield)所組成。
友誼網頁連結
- Jnana R Kayal has a page about the geology of India that mentions the Indian shield.
- A page from Marianopolis college describes the geography of Canada and shows a map of the Canadian shield.
- Oldest Rocks from the West African shield.
- An interesting page about the evolving earth and plate tectonics from the University of Michigan..
友誼網頁連結
- Jnana R Kayal has a page about the geology of India that mentions the Indian shield.
- A page from Marianopolis college describes the geography of Canada and shows a map of the Canadian shield.
- Oldest Rocks from the West African shield.
- An interesting page about the evolving earth and plate tectonics from the University of Michigan..