Pan-African orogeny

The Pan-African orogeny was a series of big events that changed Earth's surface about 600 million years ago. These events were linked to the formation of two huge landmasses called supercontinents, named Gondwana and Pannotia. This process is also called the Pan-Gondwanan or Saldanian Orogeny.

Together with another series of events called the Grenville orogeny, the Pan-African orogeny was one of the biggest systems of these surface-changing events in Earth's history. During this time and the Grenville period, most of the continental crust that we see today was formed, making this one of the most important times for shaping our planet's land.

History and terminology

The name "Pan-African" was created a long time ago to describe a big change in Earth’s surface in Africa. This change happened around 500 million years ago when many old pieces of land, called cratons, came together.

As scientists learned more about how Earth’s plates move, they realized that the Pan-African changes were part of making a huge land called Gondwana. This land included many continents and took a very long time to form. The Pan-African events happened around the same time as other big changes in Europe and Asia.

Pan-African belts

The Pan-African orogeny involved many mountain-building events that helped form large landmasses long ago. Some important mountain belts from this time include:

• The Arabian-Nubian Shield, stretching from Ethiopia to the southern Levant, which formed as the Red Sea opened.
• The Mozambique Belt, running from East Africa through Antarctica, created when tectonic plates collided.
• The Zambezi Belt in northern Zimbabwe and Zambia is a branch of the Mozambique Belt.
• The Damara Belt in Namibia formed when oceans closed, and it connects to other belts in southern Africa.
• The Lufilian Arc stretches from northern Botswana into the southern DRC and Zambia.
• The Gariep and Saldania belts along the edge of the Kalahari Craton also formed from ocean closures.
• The Kaoko Belt in Angola is another belt created from ocean closures.
• The West Congo Belt formed from ancient rifting and includes glacial deposits.
• The Trans–Saharan Belt runs north and east of the West African Craton.
• Central African belts lie between the Congo and Nigerian shields.
• The Saharan Metacraton includes ancient rocks affected by the Pan-African events.
• The Rokelide Belt along the western edge of the Man Shield was also shaped during this time.