ABSTRACT
This part of the book deals with the regional stratigraphic correlations and paleogeographic evolution of North Africa set in the context of local and global tectonics.
The geological evolution of North Africa can be discussed in terms of three megasequences spanning three time-stratigraphic units: Paleozoic-Albian, Upper Cretaceous-Upper Eocene, and Oligocene-Recent (Tawadros, 2001, Tawadros et al., 2006). These megasequences are subdivided further into sequences which represent genetically related rock bodies bounded by regional unconformities. Each sequence corresponds approximately to a major time-stratigraphic unit. This subdivision, however, is rather artificial and arbitrary. For example the Precambrian events, such as the PanAfrican Orogeny, actually extend into the Lower Cambrian. In addition, the MesozoicTertiary boundary is still controversial in many parts of North Africa. In addition, the stratigraphic nomenclature has changed drastically in the last three decades, especially in Egypt and Libya, which made correlations cumbersome; whereas the majority of the lithostratigraphic units in NW Africa are still unnamed or loosely defined.
