— Ancient Africa —

The heart of Gondwana. 

The natural history of Africa: an ancient continent.

Why is Africa special and why do we want to know more about it? 

Africa evokes mystery, fear, compassion, intrigue. Some get the creeps just from the idea of going to Africa. On others, Africa exerts an unexplainable attraction. As Journalist Ryszard Kapuściński described in his book Ebony: Africa does not exist, it is a multitude of peoples, myths, landscapes, stories … Not to mention the unique geology of Africa.

Africa is an ancient continent, not only because there lies the cradle of mankind. Africa's natural history goes far back in time. The continent of Africa consists of three smaller continents, which date back to the age of the Archaean. Then, there was only life in the seas, single-celled life. There were no plants or animals yet. 

Later, at some point, Africa was in the middle of a huge continent, Gondwana. How did that happen? As you can see, the geological history of Africa is incredibly rich. We will write about Africa's great rivers, the vast high plateaus, and the famous rift valley that stretches from Israel to Mozambique. 

Why do we focus on Africa here? The answer is simple. Because the author of most of GondwanaTalks' articles has done fieldwork in Africa and carried out several geological studies about it. She published in scientific magazines, on the Niger River and she ventured to the volcano Mount Cameroon, analyzing lava flow hazards and risks to people and infrastructure. But those are technical papers. On GondwanaTalks we want to explain the same things in easier words.

Read now (click on the image to go to the article):