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Precambrian Basement of the Congo Basin and Its Flanking Terrains

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Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin

Part of the book series: Regional Geology Reviews ((RGR))

Abstract

Africa’s four major Proterozoic shields were tectonically separated from one-another within the late Meso- to early Neo-Proterozoic Rodinia supercontinent along Rodinian mobile belts (‘Grenvillian’ in North America; ‘Kibaran’ in Africa; although, ironically, the type Kibaran rocks of Africa, now Karagwe-Ankole Belt in Rwanda and Burundi, have been found to be older and no longer define a Rodinian-age mobile belt. Following subsequent break-up of Rodinia, the four disparate African Shields welded together during the late Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian amalgamation of Gondwana (ca. 500–800 Ma). The geology, geochronology and evolution of one of these Shields, the Central African Shield (CAS) is described here in some detail because it forms the basement to the Congo Basin (CB) that is the focus of this book. The CAS hosts both the world’s oldest (2.8 Ga) and youngest diamondiferous kimberlites and a number of complex Archean Cratons that outcrop along the flanks of the CB. The CB of central Africa is underlain and completely surrounded by peneplained Precambrian basement that spans a history more than 3.6 Ga, including rocks along its northeastern edge possibly as old as 4.0 Ga, separated and surrounded by numerous Paleo- to Neo-Proterozoic mobile belts. This Precambrian complex assemblage includes the peripheral (outcropping) Kasai, Cuango, Ntem, Bouca and Mboumou-Uganda cratonic blocks that can be assembled into three larger Congolese Cratons unexposed beneath the CB: the SouthWest-, the Cuvette- (or Central-), and the NorthEast- Congo Cratons (SW-, C- and NE-CC) and that in turn, together, constitute the Congo Shield (CS). Subsequently these three aggregated along the Central Angola Mobile Belt (CAMB; ca. 2.0–2.3 Ga) and the West Central African Mobile Belt [WCAMB; ca. 2.0–2.5 Ga to form the SouthWest Congo Shield (SWCS). In the east, the CS enlarged farther to form the CAS during the Proterozoic along Eburnian, Kibaran and Pan-African orogenic belts, but the details of the accretion processes of these continental domains remain uncertain.

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Acknowledgments

MdW would like to thank many colleagues from De Beers for facilitating and participation during a decade of his many long field escapes into Africa between 1995 and 2005; and BL into the CB in 2008. Both of us are grateful to Tsodilo Resources for supporting similar trips to Botswana. MdW acknowledges Sam Bowring (MIT) for precise U/Pb zircon dates (most of which still remain unpublished, but we are trying to do something about that) and Moctar Doucouré for his calm and diplomatic Africa advice and wisdom during our African adventures. We thank Bruce Eglington, Brendan Murphy and Mike de Wit for critical reviews. Some of this work was funded through the DST/NRF to AEON and Inkaba yeAfrica/!Khure Africa programs. This is AEON contribution number 134 and Inkaba yeAfrica number 107.

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  1. AEON-ESSRI (Africa Earth Observatory Network-Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Maarten J. de Wit & Bastien Linol

  2. Geological Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Bastien Linol

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  1. Maarten J. de Wit
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Correspondence to Maarten J. de Wit .

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  1. Geosciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Maarten J. de Wit

  2. Geosciences, University of Rennes, Rennes Cedex, France

    François Guillocheau

  3. Geology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Michiel C. J. de Wit

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de Wit, M.J., Linol, B. (2015). Precambrian Basement of the Congo Basin and Its Flanking Terrains. In: de Wit, M., Guillocheau, F., de Wit, M. (eds) Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29482-2_2

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