Cratons are typically old, having been assembled from even older geological building blocks in the early history of the continents, and they tend to be stable because they have had billions of years to cool and consolidate into rigid, thick crust that resists the deformation that more recently formed crustal material undergoes.

The Guiana Shield underlies the northern half of the South American continent, from Venezuela across Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, and into Brazil.

It is one of the largest shield regions on Earth.

The Roraima Supergroup — the geological formation that includes the rocks of the tepui plateaus — was deposited on top of this ancient basement rock approximately 1.7 to 2 billion years ago.

The depositional environment included river deltas, shallow marine basins, and tidal flats — a dynamic coastal or near-coastal system where sand and other sediments were being carried by water from higher elevations and deposited in lower-lying areas.