Early Precambrian basic rocks of Africa

Abstract

African geology has an important place in the study of the history of our planet because it contains rocks of all ages from the early Archaean to the Quaternary. Unfortunately, ‘…the details of the geology of Africa are still not quite clear…’ Kogbe, 1983) or at least they are heterogeneously known. Africa contains large tracts of early Precambrian rocks. Whereas a great deal of detailed information is available for the southern African terranes, less is known about the Precambrian terranes of West Africa and only sparse information is available from the other old cratons. A large proportion of this information is not available internationally as it is contained in unpublished company reports, local survey publications and unpublished theses. This review of mafic–ultramafic volcanism in the early Precambrian of Africa is based on information contained, as far as possible, in the international literature. This is not to underrate the efforts of all those geologists who have puzzled over the problems of the Archaean in Africa, but is done to enable the reader to access the available information.