Cenozoic Landscape Evolution in and Around the Congo Basin: Constraints from Sediments and Planation Surfaces 14 Francois Guillocheau, Roman Chelalou, Bastien Linol, Oliver Dauteuil, Cecile Robin, Francois Mvondo, Yannick Callec, and Jean-Paul Colin{ 14.1 Introduction The Congo Cuvette (here referred to as Congo Basin, CB) corresponds (Fig. 14.1) to a large, ovoid, depression (E–W: 1,300–1,500 km, N–S: 1,000–1,200 km), bordered: • To the east, by the Mitumba Mounts, forming the western flank of the East-African Dome (western branch of the East African Rift System with an elevation of 1,800–2,000 m to 2,500–3,000 m, and a maximum eleva- tion of 4,507 m (at the Mount Karisimbi volcano of the Virunga volcanic province), • To the north, by the Cameroon Volcanic Line (Western Highlands and Adamawa-Yade ´ Plateau, called hereafter the Cameroon Highlands) with an elevation of 900–1,800 m and a maximum elevation of 3,010 m at Mount Oku (Western Highlands) and 4,040 to 4,095 m at Mount Cameroon (near the Coastal Plain) and the Ubangian Rise with an elevation of 500–1,000 m, and a maximum elevation of 1,330 m at Mount Toussoro (Central African Republic, CAR), • To the south, by the Kwango-Lunde-Kasai Plateau with an elevation of 1,000–1,100 m to 1,200–1,400 m, flanked by the Katanga Plateaus and Plains (east) and the Angola Plateau (west), • To the west, by the Central African Atlantic Swell that separates the CB from the South Atlantic coast and which comprises two subswells, the Angola Swell, south of the Congo River and with a mean elevation of 1,800–2,200 m and the Congo-Gabon-South Cameroon Swell, north of the Congo River and with a mean elevation of 600–900 m and a maximum elevation of 1,575 m at Mount Iboundji (Gabon). The elevation of the base of the CB, here defined at the river water level, ranges between 320 m in the west to 380 m in the east, flanked by local reliefs (hills) on the order of 200–300 m above the river water level. Because of the large size of the CB (1,000 km wave- length) a dynamic topography control linked to mantle pro- cesses has been inferred for the Cuvette (Hartley and Allen 1994; Downey and Gurnis 2009; Crosby et al. 2010; Moucha and Forte 2011; see also Raveloson et al., Chap. 1 this Book) In contrast, other authors favour a long-term thermo-tectonic control on the evolution of the basin, following an early Neoproterozoic rift below the central part of the CB (e.g. Kadima et al. 2011; see also Kadima et al., Chap. 4, this Book) or by sediment loading on a thick lithosphere (e.g. Buiter et al. 2012). Little attention has been paid in these models to the details of the Cenozoic evolution of the CB. This may be because there are only few reviews (e.g. Lepersonne 1978—without figures; Giresse 2005) and which are mostly ignored. Two competing models should be considered for the Cenozoic landscape evolution in and around the CB: (1) significant subsidence of the Central Basin from a Mesozoic plateau, or (2) low uplift of the F. Guillocheau (*)  R. Chelalou  O. Dauteuil  C. Robin Ge ´ociences-Rennes, UMR 6118 Universite ´ de Rennes 1 – CNRS, OSUR, Universite ´ de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes cedex, France e-mail: francois.guillocheau@univ-rennes1.fr; roman. chelalou@univ-rennes1.fr; olivier.dauteuil@univ-rennes1.fr; cecile.robin@univ-rennes1.fr B. Linol Africa Earth Observatory Network, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa e-mail: bastien.aeon@gmail.com F. Mvondo De ´partement de Ge ´osciences, Universite ´ de Douala, 2701 Douala, Cameroon e-mail: francois_mvondo@hotmail.com Y. Callec BRGM-CONGO, 256 Boulevard Loango, BP 1758 Pointe Noire, DR Congo e-mail: y.callec@brgm.fr {Author was deceased at the time of publication. M.J. de Wit et al. (eds.), Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin, Regional Geology Reviews, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-29482-2_14, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 271