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.
Connections
In Discipline
Source West African Craton (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
Wikidata: West African Craton
Wikidata Q7984269, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source West African Craton (Wikipedia)
In Discipline: Geomorphology, Lead paragraphQuote, In Discipline: Geomorphology, Lead paragraph
The West African Craton (WAC) is one of the five cratons of the Precambrian basement rock of Africa that make up the African Plate, the others being the Kalahari craton, Congo craton, Saharan Metacraton and Tanzania Craton
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.