Ukrainian shield
.png)
The Ukrainian shield is the geological province in the center and west of Ukraine , in which the Precambrian basement of the Eastern European table emerges. Besides the Baltic Shield, it is the only other continental shield in Europe and the smaller one in terms of area.
The physiographic region of the Ukrainian Shield makes up about half of the Ukrainian national territory. It comprises an undulating mountain or hill country , which stretches from the coastal lowlands of the Azov Sea south of the Dnieper about 700 km to the Belarusian border . The high altitudes of this area are mainly not formed by the crystalline rocks of the Precambrian, but by sedimentary rocks of the Tertiary . Precambrian rocks are mainly found in the river valleys that have cut into the tertiary plateau, and there sometimes still below Cretaceous or Jurassic layers. The actual bite area of the Precambrian is consequently less than the area of the physiographic region.
Literature and Sources
- Frank Press, Raymond Siever: General Geology. Introduction to the earth system. 3rd edition, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Weinheim 2001