Mauritanide Belt

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Paleogeographic reconstruction of the supercontinent Pangaea, including the Central Pangean Mountains of which the Mauritanide Belt formed a part. Pangaea (230 million years ago).png
Paleogeographic reconstruction of the supercontinent Pangaea, including the Central Pangean Mountains of which the Mauritanide Belt formed a part.

The Mauritanide Belt is an ancient orogen running parallel to the west coast of Africa from Morocco to Guinea-Bissau. The orogeny that formed the Mauritanide Belt was active between 320 and 270 million years ago in the Carboniferous and Permian. During this time period the eastern nappes of the belt thrust over rocks of Devonian age in the Taoudeni Basin. During the Triassic the Mauritanide Belt was split from the Appalachian Mountains (with which it was previously a single orogen) as the Atlantic Ocean opened. [1]

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The geology of Sicily records the collision of the Eurasian and the African plates during westward-dipping subduction of the African slab since late Oligocene. Major tectonic units are the Hyblean foreland, the Gela foredeep, the Apenninic-Maghrebian orogen, and the Calabrian Arc. The orogen represents a fold-thrust belt that folds Mesozoic carbonates, while a major volcanic unit is found in an eastern portion of the island. The collision of Africa and Eurasia is a retreating subduction system, such that the descending Africa is falling away from Eurasia, and Eurasia extends and fills the space as the African plate falls into the mantle, resulting in volcanic activity in Sicily and the formation of Tyrrhenian slab to the north.

The geology of Guinea-Bissau is oldest in the east and becomes younger toward the west, with sediments from the past 66 million years nearer the coast. Some rock units in the northeast are as much as 680 million years old and throughout the geologic past Guinea-Bissau was influenced by the Mauritanide Belt orogeny and was submerged or partially submerged as a marine shelf or river delta for most of its existence.

The geology of Mauritania is built on more than two billion year old Archean crystalline basement rock in the Reguibat Shield of the West African Craton, a section of ancient and stable continental crust. Mobile belts and the large Taoudeni Basin formed and filled with sediments in the connection with the Pan-African orogeny mountain building event 600 million years ago and a subsequent orogeny created the Mauritanide Belt. In the last 251 million years, Mauritania has accumulated additional sedimentary rocks during periods of marine transgression and sea level retreat. The arid country is 50% covered in sand dunes and has extensive mineral resources, although iron plays the most important role in the economy.

References

  1. Villeneuve, Michel (2005). "Paleozoic basins in West Africa and the Mauritanide thrust belt". Journal of African Earth Sciences . 43 (1–3): 166–195. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2005.07.012.