The Volgo-Uralia region has a thick sedimentary cover, however deep drillings have revealed mostly Archaean crust.
The southern margin of the craton is where Sarmatia is buried beneath thick Phanerozoic sediments and the Alpine orogens.
The intervening Late Palaeozoic Donbas Fold Belt, also known as part of the Dnieper-Donets Rift, transects Sarmatia, dividing it into the Ukrainian Shield and the Voronezh Massif.
The northwestern margin of the craton is overlaid by the fold-and-thrust Early Paleozoic Caledonian orogen.
The East European Craton has a very complex tectonic history with extensive Proterozoic and Paleozoic rifting, a large portion of which is of early deep mantle plume origin.