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Geological Formations

West African Craton

Structural and Tectonic Formations

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The West African Craton is one of five Precambrian cratons making up the basement rock of Africa within the African Plate, extending across fourteen West African nations from the Anti-Atlas mountains to the Gulf of Guinea. It formed from Archean centers including the Leo-Man-Ghana and Reguibat blocks together with the Taoudeni domain, which docked together around 2.1 to 2 billion years ago, its oldest rocks having been metamorphosed between 2.9 and 2.5 billion years ago. The craton is built of Archean and Paleoproterozoic rock, including greenstone belts and metamorphic rock such as amphibolite, gneiss and migmatite, and is overlain by younger Neoproterozoic sedimentary deposits.

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