Tuareg Shield

Named after the Tuareg people, it has complex a geology, reflecting the collision between these cratons and later events.

The Tuareg Shield is mainly composed of Archean or Paleoproterozoic terranes and Neoproterozoic terranes that amalgamated during the Pan African orogeny when the West African craton and the Saharan metacraton converged.

[1] In Mali, the Tilemsi belt is a complex of intraoceanic arcs that formed above a subduction zone sloping down to the east and were accreted to the shield during the Pan-African orogeny.

[3] During the oblique collision of the West African craton with the Saharan metacraton the shield was torn into separate but rigid moving blocks.

[1] The higher areas consist of the uplifted Precambrian basement overlaid with volcanic rocks.

West Africa: Tuareg Shield to the east of the West African craton
This NASA Landsat image shows small scoria cones and lava flows of the Manzaz volcanic field in the Hoggar volcanic district of Algeria . The volcanic field covers an area of 1500 km 2 , overlying Precambrian metamorphic and plutonic rocks of the Tuareg shield. Many cones are breached, and the dominantly basaltic and basanitic volcanic products are rich in peridotite and pyroxenite xenoliths and megacrysts. The youngest volcanoes rest on Neolithic terraces and are of Holocene age.