The Formation and Evolution of Africa

Download or read book The Formation and Evolution of Africa written by Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen and published by Geological Society of London. This book was released on 2011 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The African continent preserves a long geological record that covers almost 75% of Earth's history. The Pan-African orogeny (c. 600-500 Ma) brought together old continental kernels (West Africa, Congo, Kalahari and Tanzania) to form Gondwana and subsequently the supercontinent Pangaea by the late Palaeozoic. The break-up of Pangaea since the Jurassic and Cretaceous, primarily through opening of the Central Atlantic, Indian, and South Atlantic oceans, in combination with the complicated subduction history to the north, gradually shaped the African continent. This volume contains 18 contributions that discuss the geology of Africa from the Archaean to the present day.