The Domes of Fabedougou

We'll is is a new reality in blogging - the iPad app for Blogger allows me to construct blog posts without an internet connection. So as we are taking a 7-hour flight to Cape Town today, I am writing this text and adding photo's from yesterday's visit to Babo Diolausso, while listening to tunes on the iPod. I guess that makes me an iBlogger. A large overcast below as we enter Angolan airspace, and I just finished giving my second lecture, "Africa - Cradlepp of Human Evolution and Cape Town's Captivating Landscape".

Our last stop in Burkina Faso was to some fantastic rock formations called the Domes of Fabedougou. They are composed of Mesoproterzoic sandstone that is incredibly un-metamorphosed. For being 1,800 million years old (and coincidentally the same age as the much tortured Vishnu Schist in Grand Canyon) these rocks are surprisingly young looking.

A first view

WooHoo! Rocks!

Imagine ripple marks almost 2 billion years old. The sandstone was friable (breakable) as well. It really didn't seem so old.

We were able to climb up on one of the domes for a good view

Differential weathering gives the rocks their layered looked. The horizontal projections are sand layers with extra cement, while the indented horizons are finer grained sand of perhaps mud which is not so well cemented. Each layer weathers at a different rate based on the amount of cement.

Close-up of cross-bedding within the sandstone

It was a fantastic stop

Fabulous Fabedougou

Return to the jet in Bobo

One of the Captains and the cabin crew always meet up on the way back.

It is a very pleasant group with about 90% of the guests having taken a jet trip with TCS before. We've had some great conversations so far.