Africa occupies nearly 20% of the Earth's land area and records at least 3.7 billion years of the Earth's history. It is one of the world-leading continents in terms of mineral reserves, well known among others for diamonds, gold, platinum-group metals, and titanium minerals. In recent years Africa has also attracted significant investment in the hydrocarbon sector. The first edition of the Geological Atlas of Africa appeared in 2006, aimed at summarizing the geology for each African country and territory, which of course is a huge effort.
The new edition follows the previous one and has been modified in parts; for example, new maps and many new photographs of geological sites have been added. The book is printed in full colour on high quality, glossy paper in A4 format. The book comprises 307 pages including 417 figures of which 67 are maps; eight are geological and political overview maps of Africa as a whole; the remaining 58 are geological overview maps, one for each country and territory. These maps are reproduced in PDF format on the accompanying CD-ROM.
The book is organized into four chapters. The first chapter (6 pages) outlines the aims and concept of the book. Chapter 2 (3 pages) gives an historical overview about geological mapping in Africa. The third chapter (15 pages) delivers a synopsis of the stratigraphy and tectonic development of Africa as a whole. Chapter 4, the main chapter (246 pages), examines each country of Africa in alphabetical order. Hence, this chapter comprises 58 sections, each between 2 and 8 pages in size. Apart from a geological overview map the accompanying text of each section summarizes the stratigraphy and tectonics, economic geology, geohazards and geosites, followed by a list of relevant references. Also useful are the alphabetical indexes at the end of the book with geographical names, geological terms and the names of cited authors. The quality of the second edition could have been improved by a thorough update of references. In total the book contains about 380 references. Of those nearly 60% are older than 1990, less than 20% are in the range from 2000 to 2008. The North African countries in particular have received much attention in the past decade, with many new data published that could strengthen the content of this book.
In summary the second edition of the Geological Atlas of Africa is a very polished piece of work and will be of benefit to anyone who needs a basic geological overview of African countries and territories. I would certainly recommend it as a library reference for attracting students in African geology. As emphasized by the author, the Geological Atlas of Africa provides a basic database to initiate new scientific research projects in Africa. This may help to promote African Earth sciences both within the continent and outside.
