Africa

History

The past. The Green Sahara: plants and lakes spread across the Sahara 15,620 to 14,132 years ago, and it dried out again 5,855 to 5,297 years ago. Only the land beds change colour, all at once, and only inside those windows.

3.6 billion years ago

Some of the oldest rocks on this plate formed, in the ancient core of the Zimbabwe craton.

340 million years ago

Ocean floor still lying under the eastern Mediterranean may date from this time, which would make it the oldest ocean floor in place on Earth. Its age is debated.

190 million years ago

Northwest Africa and North America pulled apart and the Central Atlantic Ocean began to open.

113 million years ago

Africa and South America broke apart and the South Atlantic Ocean opened, after a long rift.

31 million years ago

A mantle plume erupted flood lavas, and rifts began to tear Arabia away from Africa.

6 million years ago

The Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic, and thick salt layers formed as its water evaporated.

Sources: deMenocal et al. 2000, Quaternary Science Reviews 19:347 · Horstwood et al. 1999, Geology 27:707 · Granot 2016, Nature Geoscience 9:701 · Seton et al. 2020, age grid v2020.1 processed here, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems · Labails et al. 2010, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 297:355 · Heine, Zoethout and Muller 2013, Solid Earth 4:215 · Bosworth, Huchon and McClay 2005, Journal of African Earth Sciences 43:334 · Krijgsman et al. 1999, Nature 400:652