The amazing weathered rocks in
the village of Fabedougou, near Banfora, in south-western Burkina. Faso Domes
have an entirely different origin. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West
Africa, covers an area of 274,200 square kilometers and its capital is Ouagadougou.
The African country village Fabedougou has around 1,000 populations. The
Natural Domes of Fabedougou very closely resemble to the famous sandstone
towers of Bungle Bungle Range in Australia, hardly half a million years old.
The Domes de Fabedougou is a natural
phenomenon of rock sculpted by wind and erosion like a stack of pancakes. The sandstones comprising the Domes of
Fabedougou are approximately two billion years old or Middle Proterozoic. But
not the Domes of Fabedougou. Generally, a two billion year old rock would have
been metamorphosed by the severe heat and pressure generated by the dynamic
nature of the Earth’s crust.
In spite of being very old, these
sandstones have been hardly metamorphosed and are astonishingly young looking. Keeping
the time in mind, it is surprising that they are so well-preserved that some of
these rocks even have ripples and dunes created by ancient water and wind flow.
Tese Domes are actually ancient sand dunes. Geological experts say this entire
area was once under a big ocean packed with free-flowing sediments. Some layers
are extremely hard to others, so they were more protected from erosion.
Therefore, as the time passes, that
the sediments settled down and compacted to form sedimentary rocks of different
thickness. Although, going pass a process of weathering and fracturing these
rocks were molded into domes and craggy fingers pointing skyward. Differential
weathering gives the rocks their layered looked, with each layer weathering at
a different rate depending upon their composition.
The magnificent hauntingly
beautiful Domes de Fabedougou undisturbed, and better for their desolation, bar
local cows and herders. They are there for the climbing, and there are some
easy ascents up the cracked sides of the domes, which sit side by side like a
series of enormous urey iuloos.
