SEINE SERIES

division of Precambrian rocks that occur in Ontario and northern Minnesota (the Precambrian began about 3.96 billion years ago and ended 540 million years ago). The Seine Series, named for prominent exposures studied along the Seine River, Ontario, forms a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks that overlie the Keewatin Series and are separated from it by an unconformity, a surface representing a major period of erosion before sediments of the Seine Series were deposited. The series begins with a prominent conglomerate that includes large boulders of granite within its matrix. It is thought that this conglomerate represents a long period of erosion during which the granitic cores of Keewatin mountains were exposed. Granitic intrusions occur in the Seine Series and have been dated at about 1.1 billion years old, and the granites that formed the mountain cores have been dated at about twice that. The Seine Series may be equivalent to the Knife Lake Series; if so, the term Knife Lake Series would have priority over Seine Series.