The São Francisco craton is located in the eastern part of South America. Outcrops in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

 and Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

.

It includes a number of different blocks of the Archean basement, separated by orogenic belts. The belts are characterized by sediment basins and passive continental margin, crossed by granite intrusions. The Paleoproterozoic

Paleoproterozoic

The Paleoproterozoic is the first of the three sub-divisions of the Proterozoic occurring between . This is when the continents first stabilized...

 (about 2.5 to 2.0 Ga) was the source of orogenetic belts and the current configuration of the craton.
The São Francisco craton around 1.0 Ga ago was located in the South of the supercontinent Rodinia and after the fragmentation of Rodinia

Rodinia

In geology, Rodinia is the name of a supercontinent, a continent which contained most or all of Earth's landmass. According to plate tectonic reconstructions, Rodinia existed between 1.1 billion and 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era...

 in the late Proterozoic (700 Ma) became a member of the supercontinent Gondwana

Gondwana

In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...

 until its fragmentation in the Jurassic (about 180 Ma): the opening of the Atlantic Ocean left South Africa in the Congo craton

Congo craton

The Congo craton, covered by the Palaeozoic-to-recent Congo basin, is an ancient Precambrian craton that with four others makes up the modern continent of Africa. These cratons were formed between about 3.6 and 2.0 billion years ago and have been tectonically stable since that time...

 and the São Francisco in South America.

The ancient Paleoproterozoic orogenic belts of the São Francisco craton-rich rocks contain many minerals, particularly iron and gold, and are a major source of income for the mining industry in Brazil.

See Also

• Geography of Brazil
  Geography of Brazil
  The country of Brazil occupies roughly half of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil covers a total area of which includes of land and of water. The highest point in Brazil is Pico da Neblina at...
  
  
• Geography of South America
  Geography of South America
  The geography of South America contains many diverse regions and climates. Geographically, South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion of the American landmass, south and east of the Panama-Colombia border by most authorities, or south and east of the Panama Canal...
  
  
• South American Plate
  South American Plate
  The South American Plate is a continental tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America and also a sizeable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....