Relief and drainage

Relief throughout Ghana is generally low, with elevations not exceeding 3,000 feet (900 metres).
The southwestern, northwestern, and extreme northern parts of the country consist of a dissected
peneplain (a land surface worn down by erosion to a nearly flat plain, later uplifted and again cut
by erosion into hills and valleys or into flat uplands separated by valleys); it is made of
Precambrian rocks (about 540 million to 4 billion years old). Most of the remainder of the
country consists of Paleozoic deposits (about 250 to 540 million years old), which are thought to
rest on older rocks. The Paleozoic sediments are composed mostly of beds of shales (laminated
sediments consisting mostly of particles of clay) and sandstones in which strata of limestone
occur in places. They occupy a large area called the Voltaian Basin in the north-central part of
the country where the elevation rarely exceeds 500 feet (150 metres). The basin is dominated by
Lake Volta, an artificial lake that extends far into the central part of the country behind the
Akosombo Dam and covers about 3,275 square miles (8,500 square km). Along the north and
south, and to some extent along the west, the uplifted edges of the basin give rise to narrow
plateaus between 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 600 metres) high, bordered by impressive scarps.
The most outstanding are the Kwahu (Mampong) Scarp (see Kwahu Plateau) in the south and the
Gambaga Scarp in the north.