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Evidence for Megalake Chad, north-central Africa, during the late quaternary from satellite data

journal contribution
posted on 2006-01-30, 00:00 authored by M Leblanc, C Leduc, Francesco Stagnitti, P Van Oevelen, C Jones, L Mofor, M Razak, G Favreau
The existence of a very large Lake Chad during the late Quaternary, Megalake Chad, has long been questioned. A Megalake Chad would present strong evidence for climatic fluctuations of great magnitude during the Holocene in tropical Africa. In this paper we used satellite data from Landsat and Modis sensors to collect and analyse new information on landforms in a 2 000 000 km2 region of the Lake Chad Basin. We detected 2300 km of remains marking the ancient shoreline of Megalake Chad. The satellite data also indicated many Saharan rivers and relict deltas leading to the long paleoshoreline. Large dunefield flattenings were observed and interpreted as the result of wave-cut erosion by the paleolake. Similarities were noticed between the landforms observed along the paleoshoreline of Megalake Chad and that of the former Aral Sea. This finding has significant consequences for reconstructing paleohydrology and paleoenvironments through the Lake Chad basin, and continental climate change.

History

Journal

Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology

Volume

230

Issue

3-4

Pagination

230 - 242

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Location

Amsterdam

ISSN

0031-0182

eISSN

1872-616X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2005 Elsevier B.V.