Kaapvaal Craton

This map shows the outlines of the southern African nations of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Kaapvaal's outline is superimposed on the countries.
The pink figure shows the land of the Kaapvaal Craton in the present day.

The Kaapvaal Craton (centred on the Limpopo Province in South Africa), along with the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6–2.5 Ga (billion years ago) crust on Earth. Similarities of rock records from both these cratons, especially of the overlying late Archean sequences, suggest that they were once part of the Vaalbara supercontinent.[1]

  1. ^ Zegers, T.E., de Wit, M.J., Dann, J. and White, S.H. (1998) "Vaalbara, Earth's oldest assembled continent? A combined, structural, geochronological, and palaeomagnetic test", Terra Nova, 10, 250–259.