FEDERAL UIVERSITY BIRNIN KEBBI

FACULTY OF SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY

SEMESTER 2018/2019 SESSION EXAMINATION

COURSE CODE: GLG 413

COURSE TITLE: GEOLOGY OF AFRICA
UNITS: 2
Time: 2 hrs
INSTRUCTION: Answer any 3, each question should be answered separately on the answer
booklet.

1a. Define the following terms

I. Precambrian shields
 Precambrian shields are the exposed parts of the basement complex (2 mks)
II. Craton
 Craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, where the
lithosphere consists of the Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the
uppermost mantle (2mks)
OR
 The term craton is used to distinguish the stable portion of the continental crust from
regions that are more geologically active and unstable.

1b. Categorized the Precambrian rocks of Africa according to their age and basic stratigraphy

Precambrian rocks can be grouped into a basic stratigraphy of the

I. Basement complex (1 mks)
II. Supracrustals (1 mks)
III. Granitic intrusions. (1 mks)

Precambrian rocks can also be broadly categorized according to their ages into
I. Archean (1 mks)
II. Proterozoic rocks (1mks)
1d. Draw a map of Africa showing the African Cratons.

(6mks)
1c. write a short note on any one of the cratons (5mks)
1. WEST AFRICAN CRATON
 The West African Craton (WAC) is one of the five cratons of the Precambrian basement rock
of Africa that make up the African Plate
 Cratons themselves are tectonically inactive, but can occur near active margins, with the
WAC extending across 14 countries in Western African,
 came together in the late Precambrian and early Palaeozoic to form the African continent.
 It consists of two Archean centers juxtaposed against multiple Paleoproterozoic domains
made of greenstone belts, sedimentary basins, regional granitoid-tonalite-trondhjemite-
granodiorite (TTG) plutons, and large shear zones.
 The craton is overlain by Neoproterozoic and younger sedimentary basins

2. KALAHARI CRATON

 Occupies large portions of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

 It consists of two cratons separated by the Limpopo Belt: the larger Kaapvaal Craton to the
south and the smaller Zimbabwe Craton to the north.
 Parts of the Kalahari Craton are now located in East (the Grunehogna Craton) and West
Antarctica (Haag Nunataks) and the Falkland Islands.
 The name was first introduced by Clifford 1970.
 The Kaapvaal Craton, Zimbabwe Craton, and Limpopo Belt are made of Archaean terranes
and contain crust at least 3.2 Ga
 Underlain by a thick (250 km) layer of buoyant mantle that is producing garnets and
diamonds.
3. CONGO CRATON
 The Congo Craton, covered by the Palaeozoic-to-recent Congo Basin,
 an ancient Precambrian craton.
  Occupies a large part of central southern Africa, extending from the Kasai region of the DRC
into Sudan and Angola.
 It forms parts of the countries of Gabon, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.
 A small portion extends into Zambia as well, where it is called the Bangweulu Block

4. TANZANIA CRATON

 The Tanzania Craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere in central
Tanzania.
 Some of the rocks are over 3 billion years old.
 The Tanzania Craton forms the highest part of the East African Plateau.
 The craton is surrounded by Proterozoic mobile belts of various ages and grades of
metamorphism. These include the Ubendian, Usagaran, Karagwe-Ankolean and Bukoban
systems.
 The Mozambique Belt lies to the east.
 The craton divides the east and west branches of the East African Rift.
 A superplume exists beneath the craton.
 The craton mainly consists of Archaean granitic complexes, but also includes rocks from the
Dodoma System in the central area, and belts of greenstone to the south and east of Lake
Victoria.
 Gneisses, schists, quartzites, migmatites, amphibolites and granulite are also found.

5. 6 KAAPVAAL CRATON
 Centred on Limpopo Province in South Africa
 One of the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6–2.5 Ga (billion years ago) crust on Earth.
 Covers an area of approximately 1,200,000 km2 (460,000 sq mi) and is joined to the
Zimbabwe Craton to the north by the Limpopo Belt.
 To the south and west, the Kaapvaal Craton is flanked by Proterozoic orogens
 To the east by the Lebombo monocline that contains Jurassic igneous rocks associated with
the break-up of Gondwana.

2a. What are orogenic cycles.

Orogenic cycles or orogeny can be defined as the tectonic processes which produced crustal
deformation, metamorphism and magmatism in mountain belts (2mks)
2b. Mention four orogenic events in Africa along with their geological age of occurrence.

I. Liberian: 2.75 Ga (2mks)

II. Eburnean event: between 2.27 Ga and 2.03 Ga (2mks)
III. Kibaran event: 1.4 - 1.3 Ga (2mks)
IV: Pan-African event (Late Proterozoic-Early Paleozoic): 550 - 450 Ga (2mks)
OR

V. Watian Event: 2.9 Ga

2c. What are mobile belts and mention four examples of mobile belts in Africa.
  An orogenic or mobile belt is the crustal region where orogenic activity has taken
place (2mks)
OR

 Mobile belts are composed of rocks that suffered metamorphism and deformation
during the Late Proterozoic- Early Paleozoic Pan-African orogeny.

FOUR EXAMPLES OF MOBILE BELTS IN AFRICA

I. The Arabian-Nubian shield of Arabia and north-east Africa

II. DamaraKaoko-Gariep Belt and Lufilian Arc of south-central and south-western
Africa,
III. West Congo Belt of Angola and Congo Republic,
IV. Trans-Sahara Belt of West Africa
V. Rokelide and Mauretanian belts
VI. Mozambique Belt of East Africa
VII. Zambezi Belt of northern Zimbabwe and Zambia (4Mks)

2d. Briefly discuss the Mozambique Belt (MB).

MOZAMBIQUE BELT (MB)

 This broad belt defines the southern Part of the East African Orogen
 Essentiality consists of medium- to high-grade gneisses and voluminous granitoids.
 Extends south from the Arabian-Nubian Shield into southern Ethiopia, Kenya and
Somalia via Tanzania to Malawi and Mozambique and also includes Madagascar
(4mks)

3a The African sedimentary basins can be grouped into four main types, mention the types
along with examples in Africa . (6 mks)
1. Divergent passive marginal basins e.g Niger Delta, the Gabon basin
2. Intracratonic sag basins e.g Chad Basin, Iullemeden Basin
3. Intracratonic fracture basins
4. Cratonic foreland basins

3b Write a short note on any one of the basin types. (4 mks)

3c Write a short note on any two of the following;
I. Chad basin
  The Chad basin (East Niger basin) refers to a group of NW-SE-trending buried
rifts in west-central Chad and southeastern Niger.
 Gravity surveys and stratigraphic studies have confirmed these buried rifts
beneath a mantle of Quaternary desert sands.
 These rifts formed on the northern side of the Central African shear zone.
 The sequence, up to 4 km thick, begins with Permo-Jurassic to Early
Cretaceous non-marine strata of fluviatile and lacustrine origin, which belong
to the "Continental Intercalaire" Group.
 The dinosaurs Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, and Spinosaurus, along with other
vertebrates, and invertebrates and Early Cretaceous floran occur in Cretaceous
beds in Niger Republic.
 The "Continental Intercalaire" Group is overlain by Cenomanian-Coniacian
marine shales and carbonates.
 The Upper Cretaceous is a clastic sequence with gypsiferous, glauconitic, and
fossiliferous shales that record marine influence down to the Santonian-
Campanian. Tertiary nonmarine beds resting unconformably on Maastrichtian-
Paleocene continental sandstones with oolitic ironstones, belong to the
"Continental Terminal" Group

II. Benue Trough

 This is a Cretaceous folded rift basin which lies across Nigeria and extends from
the Niger delta and links northward with the Chad basin, through the Gongola
rift.
 It branches into northern Cameroon through the Yola rift.
 Other bifurcations of the Benue trough include the Mamfe rift in southeastern
Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon, and the Nupe basin in central Nigeria.
 Geophysical surveys reveal crustal thinning beneath the Benue trough, flanked
on both sides by linear sub-basins that were the thickest depocentres,
sometimes with over 6 km of strata.

III. Karoo basins

 Karoo basins are of three types. T
 The main Karoo basin which extends in an east-west direction across South
Africa subsided as a foreland basin because of prolonged regional compression
and uplift in the Cape fold belt.
 Outside the Karoo foreland basin are shallow, broad intracratonic sag basins
to the west. These sag basins are known in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia,
Angola, Zaire and Gabon.
 The third and eastern group of Karoo basins are the narrow grabens and half-
grabens or troughs which occur in eastern Africa, for example in Tanzania,
Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
 These Karoo troughs resulted from a long period of regional crustal extension
which preceded the fragmentation of Gondwana in the Late Jurassic-Early
Cretaceous.
  A typical Karoo succession comprises, from the base: tillites; coal-measures;
fan-deltaic clastic wedges which interfinger with lacustrine deposits; fluvial
and eolian beds; and extensive basalt flows

IV. Taoudeni basin

 Centered on the West African craton

 contains tabular cratonic sequences of Late Proterozoic to Carboniferous age
 Contains the most extensive outcrops of Lower Paleozoic strata in West Africa and
underlies most of Mali, and extends into Algeria, Burkina Faso, and continues into the
two Guineas and Senegal in the southwest, where it is known as the Bove Basin.
 simple shallow interior sag basin with very low dips of one degree or less.
 It lies unconformably upon the Eburnean basement which is exposed to the
northwest and southeast.

 It is flanked and overthrust to the west by the Mauritanides along a narrow (10-50 km)
tectonized margin with folds and fractures which resulted from Hercynian
deformation
 Stratigraphically, the Taoudeni basin consists of fine-grained clastics and carbonates,
2,000-3,000 m thick.
 The succession in the Taoudeni basin, termed supergroups, comprises Supergroup 1
(Mid-Late Proterozoic sandstones and stromatolitic carbonates); Supergroup 2 (Late
Proterozoic basal tillites, baryte-bearing dolomite, marine cherts and shaly siltsones,
and Cambro-Ordovician Skolithus-bearing sandstones with inarticulate brachiopods);
and Supergroup 3 (Late 0rdovician tillites, graptolitic Silurian shales and fine
sandstones, and Devonian shales with reefal limestones). (10mks)