kratogen Geol.
(ˈkrætədʒɛn)
[a. G. kratogen (L. Kober Der Bau der Erde (1921) i. 21), f. Gr. κράτο-ς strength: see -gen.]
An area of a continent that has resisted deformation over a (geologically) long period of time. Hence kratoˈgenic a.
| 1923 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXXIV. 210 The ‘Kratogens’, once the area of the most ancient geosynclines, may, after they are peneplained, be widely flooded by epeiric seas. 1934 Geogr. Jrnl. LXXXIII. 515 After a few preliminary chapters dealing with the evolution of orogenic and kratogenic (continental) areas, he sets forth his views on..mountain-building. 1939 R. Ruedemann in Ruedemann & Balk Geol. N. Amer. I. 48 The geosynclines appear to be the compensating areas of subcrustal flowage between the subsiding oceans and the unmoved or horst-like neutral areas or ‘kratogens’ of the positive elements. 1969 Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles v. 91 Certainly, the Midlands of England formed a kratogen which persisted throughout the Ordovician and Silurian. Ibid. vi. 129 The marginal facies of south Shropshire and the English Midlands, which were similarly laid down on the margins of the (Midlands) kratogenic block and by shallow seas spreading across it. |