GEOLOGY OF THE SOUTHEASTERN VOLTAIAN BASIN AND TOGO RANGE, GHANA

As a Peace Corps Geologist in Ghana from 1963-65, the author had the opportunity to do systematic field mapping in a region critical for understanding the stratigraphy and structure of the southeastern part of the Voltaian Basin and the adjoining Akwapim-Togo Range. A sequence of thin-bedded shales, quartzite and feldspathic sandstone was traced into the folded mountain range. The flat-lying sediments of the basin are deformed into open folds in the foothills of the mountains and finally overturned folds and thrusts exposing increasingly lower parts of the section towards the east. The region exhibits classic relations, on a small scale, of a typical foreland basin and orogenic belt. The tectonic setting and age is part of the Pan-African orogeny associated with plate collisions that formed Gondwanaland. The Ghana experience provided an important lesson in the importance of knowing the stratigraphy of a region in order to unravel its structure. The author went on to apply methods of classical stratigraphy to planetary geologic mapping and understanding the geologic evolution of the Moon, Venus and Mars. The Peace Corps experience was vital to this geologist’s professional development as a planetary scientist.