Laurentia
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]A New Latin formation named after the Saint Lawrence River: Laurentius (“Lawrence”) + -ia (New Latin suffix for creating place names). Or, back-formed from Laurentian (from French laurentien), already in use to describe the Laurentian Mountains and their associated geologic complex (and by extension Canada as a whole). (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)
Proper noun
[edit]Laurentia
- (geology) The craton that forms the geological core of North America, and that was a separate continent in the past (before merging into Laurasia).
- 2015, Kent C. Condie, Plate Tectonics & Crustal Evolution:
- Laurentia includes most of North America, Scotland and Ireland north of the Caledonian suture, Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the Chukotsk peninsula of eastern Siberia.
- (nonstandard) Canada.