The Sarmatian Craton is a geological and tectonics term for the southern segment/region of the East European Craton also known as Scythian Plateau. The craton contains Archaean rocks 2.8 to 3.7 billion years old. During the Carboniferous Period the craton was rifted apart by the Dneiper-Donets rift. As a result, geomorphologically the cratonic area is split by the Donbass Fold Belt, also known as a part of the large Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets aulacogen, which transects Sarmatia, dividing it into the Ukrainian Massif or shield on the southwest and the Voronezh Massif to the northeast.