Congo Craton
The Congo craton is in Archean incurred, stable crustal block in Central Africa. Along with the West Africa craton and the Kalahari craton in South Africa, this craton is one of the three large blocks of stable, crystalline basement of very old rock that make up the African plate . These heavily consolidated land masses are able to drift plate tectonically as a whole and without faults.
In the broadest definition, the Congo craton covers an area of more than 9 million square kilometers between the north equatorial threshold beyond the Ubangi in the north and the remnants of the Damara Fold Mountains in the south, as well as between the Atlantic in the west and the Tanzanian highlands in the east. In the center lies the Congo Basin , which mainly belongs to the Congo river system .
The Kalahari Craton and the Congo Craton were separated by an ocean around 700 million years ago, but they began to drift towards each other. Deep-sea sediments, turbidites and limestone from the shelf seas or volcanic rocks from the mid-ocean ridges were pushed together to form a mountain range that, during its high phase, reached similar dimensions as the Himalayas today, but has long since been eroded into the inconspicuous Damara belt, with the exception of remnants such as the Otavi Mountains . Since then, the two cratons have been welded together, move together on the Earth's mantle and form an essential part of the African plate.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Africa's geological structure - overview
- ↑ Diamond deposits in the Congo Craton in the Central African Republic
- ↑ Measure areas with google maps
- ↑ University of Tübingen, excursion report Namibia 2010: Introduction to the geological development of Namibia