Chapter 7 Platform cover of the East European Craton

Abstract

Part of the Precambrian of the East European Craton platform cover includes upper Proterozoic Riphean and Vendian sediments. Riphean sediments for the most part are localized in relatively narrow elongate furrows in the crystalline basement, such sedimentary basin structures usually being referred to as “aulacogens.” Riphean and Vendian are also constituents of intracratonic and pericratonic basins, which are mostly developed around the craton margins. Upper Vendian sediments (Valdai Group and its analogues) are more widespread. These sediments, together with the Lower Palaeozoic, constitute the lower structural stage of the upper platform assemblage, forming a sedimentary blanket on the craton. Structures in the platform cover have been poorly investigated in terms of their metallogeny. This is particularly the case for structures belonging to the Riphean–Lower Vendian (palaeocratonic) structural stage, buried beneath a thick sedimentary mantle of the craton cover assemblage. Economic concentrations of metals associated with Riphean sediments are known only in the Bashkirian region of the Urals, which historically belongs to the East European Craton, and in the modern structural plan forms part of the Urals fold belt. This chapter presents an outline of the main features relating to the evolution of ore formation in the late Proterozoic across the Russian Platform.