The Superior Craton is a stable crustal block covering Quebec, Ontario, and southeast Manitoba in Canada, and northern Minnesota in the United States. It is the biggest craton among those formed during the Archean period. A craton is a large part of the Earth's crust that has been stable and subjected to very little geological changes over a long time. The size of Superior Craton is about 1,572,000 km². The craton underwent a series of events from 4.3 to 2.57 Ga. These events included the growth, drifting and deformation of both oceanic and continental crusts.

Researchers have divided the Superior Craton into many different domains based on rock types and deformation styles. These domains (grouped into western and eastern superior provinces), include the North Superior Superterrane and Wawa Terrane, among others (shown in the table below).

Studies on the formation of the Superior Craton varied in progress between the western and the eastern part. For the western part, five major orogenies were involved. They include the Northern Superior Orogeny (2720 Ma), the Uchian Orogeny (2720–2700 Ma), the Central Superior Orogeny (2700 Ma), the Shebandowanian Orogeny (2690 Ma), and the Minnesotan Orogeny (2680 Ma). For the eastern part, two models are suggested. The first model by Percival and Skulski (2000) focuses on the collision between the terranes. The second model by Bédard (2003) and Bédard et al. (2003) focuses on the effect of an active anorogenic magmatic activity.

The Superior Craton covers central Canada; it occupies the northern and central part of Quebec, extending across the central and the southern part of Ontario, and also covers southeast Manitoba, with its tip reaching the boundary between the U.S. states of South Dakota and Minnesota.

The Archean Superior Craton extends over 1,572,000 km² of the North American continent. Forming the core of the Canadian Shield, the Archean Superior craton is encompassed by early Proterozoic orogens. The western to the northeastern part of the craton is bound by the Trans-Hudson orogens. To the eastern and the southeastern side are the neighbouring Grenville orogens. The southern side meets the Keweenawan rift, while the southernmost tip of the craton in Minnesota reaches the Central Plain orogen.

Regarding the faults, there are three major trends of subparallel faults slicing the craton into linear subprovinces. In the northwestern part, faulting occurs in a west–northwest direction. The northeastern part has northwest-trending faults. The faults in the remaining southern part possess an east–west direction.

The craton-forming terranes are created from very diverse settings, such as oceanic arc, ancient forearc, oceanic tectonic melange, uplift within the craton, fold-thrust belt and extra. Common among them is that these features were mostly formed in a compression setting.

Some terranes, such as the Western Wabigoon Terrane, are formed from the setting of an oceanic arc. An oceanic arc is a chain of volcanoes which formed above and parallel to the subduction zones. Due to tectonic activities in the Earth, the relevant continental and oceanic crusts collided before 2.70 Ga. The denser oceanic crust subducted underneath the continental crust and melted into the mantle, which generated more magma. The huge amount of magma then rose up, penetrated through the crust above and erupted. The continuous eruption of volcanic material cooled down and accumulated around the centers of eruption, forming a chain of volcanoes in the shape of an arc.