Geological Atlas of Africa: With Notes on Stratigraphy, Tectonics, Economic Geology, Geohazards, Geosites and Geoscientific Education of Each Country - 2nd edition

311 Pages·2008·118.07 MB·English

by  Thomas Schluter

Geological Atlas of Africa
Thomas Schlu¨ter
Geological Atlas of Africa
With Notes on Stratigraphy, Tectonics,
Economic Geology, Geohazards, Geosites
and Geoscientific Education of Each Country
With contributions by Martin H. Trauth
2ndfour-colouredrevisedandenlargededition,with417figuresandaCD-ROM
123
ThomasSchlu¨ter
UNESCONairobiOffice
Nairobi
Kenya
[email protected]
ISBN:978-3-540-76324-6 e-ISBN:978-3-540-76373-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008923786
1stEdition2006
(cid:2)c 2008Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg
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Acknowledgements
Over the last 10 years since the inception of the Digitizing of various printed maps was done by
Geological Atlas of Africa Project, I have been fortu- Dirk Spengler (Utrecht), Nadja Insel (Potsdam) and
nate to have had support from many individuals and Stephen Mogere (Nairobi). h e i nal layout of the
institutions in several African, European and North maps and the complete page design was created by
American countries. My interest in the compilation Dipl.-Ing. Elisabeth Sillmann (Landau/Pfalz).
of geological overview maps of Africa grew out from
the conviction of my late supervisor, Walter G. K ühne, I am grateful to Dr. Christian Witschel (Heidelberg)
who had taught me that basic understanding of the for the incorporation of this atlas into the Springer
geology of an area or region will never happen with- Geosciences Programme.
out initial observation of the respective available geo-
logical map. It is therefore my hope that by critical
evaluation of the here presented maps further scien- I acknowledge the following copyright holders for
tii c work may be successfully carried out. permission to use copyright material:
I am indebted to a great number of individuals for BBC Books,
assistance in many areas beyond my own discipline photographs on ps 38; 224.
of Historical Geology and Palaeontology. Finan-
cial support was received from DAAD (German Borntraeger Verlag,
Academic Exchange Service), namely Mr. Cay photographs 18; 20; 91.
Etzold, Director of the DAAD Oi ce in Nairobi from
2001–2005. My colleagues in the UNESCO Nairobi DuMont Buchverlag,
Office, Dr. Paul Vitta, Prof. Joseph Massaquoi, photographs 28; 29.
Alice Ochanda, and Dr. Robert Höt (now Toronto)
provided an environment that was very innova- Ferdinand Enke Verlag,
tive for the creation of the maps and the text of the photographs 2; 4.
atlas. Similarly I was encouraged by my colleagues
at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Drs. Wolfgang Geological Society of South Africa,
Eder, Robert Missotten and Margarete Patzak, and photographs on ps 62; 193; 217.
at i eld oi ces in Windhoek, Alex Magarikakis, and
Nairobi, Noeline Raondry-Rakotoarisoa. Profs. Justus Perthes Verlag Gotha
Britta Schütt (Berlin), Dieter Jäkel (Berlin), Jürgen photographs on ps 20; 24; 52; 188; 232.
Wohlenberg (Hannover), Volker Jacobshagen
(Berlin), Wolf U. Reimold (Berlin), Martin Strecker Harry N. Abrams,
(Potsdam), Eckart Wallbrecher (Graz, Austria), Peter photographs 87; 212, 262.
van Straaten (Guelph, Canada), h eo Davies (Jos,
Nigeria), Sospeter Muhongo (Pretoria, South Africa), National Geographic,
Henry Kampunzu† (Gaborone, Botswana), Isaac photographs on ps 17; 33.
Konfor Njilah (Yaounde, Cameroon), and Manuel
Pinto (Porto, Portugal) contributed in many ways Der Spiegel,
signii cantly to the i nal text and sometimes with photograph on pg 95 let .
photographs of various geosites. Dr. Andreas Berger
(Potsdam), Wolfgang Zils (Berlin) and Dr. Christa Struik,
Werner (Berlin) provided an invaluable mass of photographs on ps 10; 12.
information on the geology of East Africa. To Dr.
Wolfgang Wramik (Rostock) I am indebted for his Time,
contribution on the island of Socotra. frontispiece July 2002.
VI Acknowledgements
Weidenfeld & Nicholson, Geoscience Press, Inc.,
photographs on ps 49; 71; 77; 139. photograph on pg 71.
World Wild Fund for Nature, Vintage,
photographs 24; 27; 46. photograph before pg 59.
C. Bertelsmann, Waldemar Kramer,
photographs 2; 12; 13. photograph on pg. 111.
AGID Report Series Geosciences in Jahrbuch Geologische Bundesanstalt, Vienna,
International Development, photograph on pg 35.
photographs on ps 208; 210.
Welterbe der UNESCO, ADAC-Buch,
Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, photograph on ps 33; 67; 76; 77.
photographs on ps 3; 7.
Nymphenburger,
Interlink Publishing Group, photograph on pg 68.
photograph on ps 28; 160.
Deutscher Kunstverlag München Berlin,
Mémoire de la Terre, photographs on ps 52, 130; 137.
photographs on ps 66; 71; 94.
Every ef ort was made to trace the copyright hold-
Philipp von Zabern, ers, but if any of them inadvertently has been over-
photograph on pg 100. looked, the necessary arrangements will be made at
the i rst opportunity.
Preface
h is atlas is intended primarily for anybody who is in- some background for the arrangement of how the
terested in basic geology of Africa. Its originality lies atlas was done. h e second chapter is devoted to the
in the fact that the regional geology of each African history of geological mapping in Africa, necessary
nation or territory is reviewed country-wise by maps for a fuller appreciation of why this work in Africa is
and text, a view normally not presented in textbooks worth doing. Chapter 3 provides an executive sum-
of regional geology. It is my belief, that there has long mary on the stratigraphy and tectonics of Africa as a
been a need in universities and geological surveys, whole, i. e. in the context of no political boundaries.
both in Africa and in the developed world, for sum- h e main part of the atlas lies in Chapter 4, where in
marizing geological maps and an accompanying basic alphabetical order each African country or territory
text utilising the enormous fund of knowledge that is presented by a digitized geological overview map
has been accumulated since the beginning of geologi- and an accompanying text on its respective stratig-
cal research in Africa in the mid-19th century. I hope raphy, tectonics, economic geology, geohazards and
that, in part, the present atlas may satisfy this need. geosites. A short list of relevant references is also add-
ed. h e atlas, essentially devoted to African geology,
h e idea to compile the atlas resulted from my teach- of ers in a condensed way data on all aspects of cur-
ing experience at African universities for more than rent geoscientiic issues that may in future contribute
20 years, and at er I had witnessed that my colleagues to the development of this continent.
there ot en had no access to geological overview maps,
references and literature of other African countries, Nairobi, February 2005 h omas Schlüter
sometimes badly needed for teaching purposes. In
western eyes Africa is ot en perceived only as a land
of adventurers and explorers, but while Africa is un-
deniably diverse and dif erent, it has never been a
Preface to the 2nd Edition
lost continent – only unfamiliar, underappreciated,
misunderstood or forgotten. Anybody who has ever h e commercial success and many well-aimed reviews
gone to Africa has taken a part of it away and let of the i rst edition of this atlas have led at er only 2 ½
something behind. h e results have not been always years since its publication to a new edition, which in
good, nor have they always been bad, but they have parts has been modii ed due to previously unknown
all gone into the mix that makes up the African soci- data. Some of the maps are completely new and many
ety. h e atlas is therefore intended to build capabili- photographs of geological sites were added. As the
ties and capacities at various places in Africa, so that atlas shall be used preferentially by African geolo-
the people there can later continue on their own with gists, I decided to add for each country or territory a
what I had begun. paragraph on the current state of art of geoscientii c
education there. h ese data are based on departmen-
h e atlas is subdivided into four chapters centering on tal websites and were compiled mainly from a report
regional geological aspects of each African country or on Geoscience Education in Africa submitted to the
territory. h e irst chapter deines the scientiic issues Ecological and Earth Science Division in UNESCO’s
involved in the preparation of the atlas and provides Headquarter in Paris.
Nairobi, January 2008 h omas Schlüter
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Fig. 1 Africa – survey of countries and territories
Contents
1
Chapter 1

Aims and Concepts of the Atlas 1
2

3
Chapter 2

Early Geological Maps of Africa 7 4

A
Chapter 3

Tectonostratigraphic Synopsis 13
B

C
Chapter 4

Review of Countries and Territories 31 D

Algeria 32 Mauritania 166 E
Angola 38 Mauritius 170

Benin 42 Morocco 174
F
Botswana 46 Mozambique 180

Burkina Faso 50 Namibia 184 G
Burundi 54 Niger 190

Cameroon 58 Nigeria 196 H
Canary Islands (Spain) 62 Reunion (France) 202

Cape Verde 66 Rwanda 204
I
Central African Republic 68 São h omé & Príncipe 208
Chad 70 Senegal 212 K
h e Comoros 74 Seychelles 216

(Mayotte still under French administration) Sierra Leone 220
L
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 76 Socotra (Yemen) 224
Republic of Congo 84 Somalia 226 M
Djibouti 88 South Africa 230

Egypt 92 Sudan 238 N
Equatorial Guinea 98 Swaziland 242

Eritrea 102 Tanzania 246 R
Ethiopia 104 Togo 254

Gabon 110 Tunisia 258
S
h e Gambia 114 Uganda 262

Ghana 116 Western Sahara 268
T
Guinea 122 (under Moroccan administration)

Guinea-Bissau 126 Zambia 270 U
Ivory Coast / Cote d’Ivoire 128 Zimbabwe 274

Kenya 132
W
Lesotho 140
Geographical Index 281
Liberia 144
Libya 148 Z

Madagascar 152 Subject Index 290 GI
Madeira (Portugal) 156

Malawi 158 SI
Mali 162 Authors Index 301
I
A
P. B. VITTA, J. MASSAQUOI,
UNESCO Offi ce Nairobi, Kenya
F. W. EDER, Paris, France
R. MISSOTTEN,
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
C. ETZOLD,
Nairobi, Kenya
(Director)
M. H. TRAUTH,
Potsdam, Germany
(Privatdozent)
J. MATOGO, R. NJIMA, S. N. MOGERE,
Nairobi, Kenya
(Research Fellow)
E. SILLMANN,
Landau, Germany
blaetterwaldDesign.de
(Communication Designer)