The rocks of the Guiana Shield are ancient by any measure that human experience provides for comparison.

The shield itself — a vast region of exposed ancient basement rock covering much of the northern part of South America, from Venezuela and Guyana across parts of Brazil — formed as part of the supercontinent Gondwana before its breakup, and contains some of the oldest rocks on the South American continent.

The rocks most directly relevant to understanding Roraima are the sedimentary formations of the Roraima Supergroup — a sequence of sedimentary rocks that were deposited over a long period beginning approximately 1.7 to 2.0 billion years ago.

These sediments were laid down at the bottom of what was then a vast shallow sea or in ancient river deltas and coastal environments.