A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere that has typically survived repeated cycles of continents merging and rifting apart, and that is generally found in the interior of a tectonic plate rather than at its edges. Cratons are built from ancient crystalline basement rock overlain by younger sedimentary rock, and they carry a thick crust with deep lithospheric roots that can extend several hundred kilometers into the mantle. The exposed basement portion of a craton is called a shield, while the sedimentary rock covering the basement elsewhere is called a platform.
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Source Wikipedia: Craton
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1. Wikipedia: Craton
Wikimedia FoundationTerminology section, sentence on Leopold Kober's 1921 coinage
The word craton was first proposed by the Austrian geologist Leopold Kober in 1921 as Kratogen, referring to stable continental platforms
In Discipline: Geology, Lead section (in-discipline Geology)
In geology, a craton ( KRAYT-on, KRAT-on, or KRAY-tən; from Ancient Greek κράτος (kratos) 'strength') is an old and stable part of continental lithosphere (the Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the lithospheric mantle).
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