See Also: continental shield(encyclopedia)
Tax shield(money)
Shield(medicine)
Tax shield(finance)
shield(1)(dictionary)
shield(2)(dictionary)
Depreciation tax shield(finance)
Interest tax shield(finance)
Canadian Shield(encyclopedia)
shield 1, noun(dictionary)

continental shield (sh)




Any of the large stable areas of low relief (little variation in elevations) in the Earth's crust that are composed of Precambrian crystalline rocks.

These rocks are always more than 570 million years old, and some are as old as 2-3 billion years. Continental shields occur on each of the continents.