{{Short description|Geological feature in Eastern Europe}} thumb|Simplified tectonics map of Europe, East European Platform in orange. '''East European Platform''' or '''Russian Platform''' is a large and flat area of the East European Craton covered by sediments in Eastern Europe spanning from the Ural Mountains to the Tornquist Zone and from the Peri-Caspian Basin to the Barents Sea. Over geological time the platform area has experienced extension, inversion and compression.<ref name=Grachevetal2006/><ref name=WL1996>{{cite journal |last=Wilson |first=M. |last2=Lyashkevich |first2=Z.M. |author-link1=Marjorie Wilson |year=1996 |title=Magmatism and the geodynamics of rifting of the Pripyat-Dnieper-Donets rift, East European Platform |journal=Tectonophysics |volume=268|issue=1–4 |pages=65–81 |doi=10.1016/S0040-1951(96)00234-X}}<!--|access-date=27 July 2015--></ref> It has an area of about 6 million km<sup>2</sup>.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sotolov |first=B.A. |year=1977 |title=Geological conditions of petroleum formation and accumulations on ancient platforms |journal=International Geology Review |volume=19|issue=2 |pages=201–207 |doi=10.1080/00206817709471013}}<!--|access-date=27 July 2015--></ref> The East European Platform sediments can be classified into the following groups: a "protoplatform" of metamorphosed sediments at the bottom, a "quasiplatform" of slightly deformed sediments, a "cataplatform", and a "orthoplatform" at the top. The Mesoproterozoic Jotnian sediments of the Baltic area are examples of a "quasiplatform".<ref name=Nago>{{cite journal |last=Nagornji |first=M.A. |last2=Nikolaev |first2=V.G. |year=2005 |title=The quasiplatform sediments of the East European Platform |journal=Russian Journal of Earth Sciences |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.2205/2005ES000171|doi-access=free }}<!--|access-date=27 July 2015--></ref> The oldest preserved continuous sedimentary cover in the platform date to the Vendian about 650 million years ago. The cycles of deposition of platform sediments are related to the development of nearby orogenies like the Timanide orogeny, the Uralian orogeny, the Hercynian orogeny and the Caledonian orogeny.<ref name=Grachevetal2006/>
The platform hosts numerous ancient rifts or aulacogens some of which date to the Riphean of the Proterozoic.<ref name=Grachevetal2006>{{cite journal |last=Grachev |first=A.F. |last2=Nikolaev |first2=V.A.|last3=Nikolaev |first3=V.G. |year=2006 |title=East European platform development in the Late Precambrian and Paleozoic: Structure and sedimentation |journal=Russian Journal of Earth Sciences |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.2205/2006ES000203 |citeseerx=10.1.1.663.4811}}<!--|access-date=27 August 2015--></ref> In the Late Devonian rifting and magmatic activity occurred within the platform leading to the formation of the Dnieper-Donets Rift. This event was possibly caused by a cluster of mantle plumes.<ref name=WL1996/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Geology of Europe}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Geology of European Russia Category:Geology of Europe