Chad Basin

The Niger and Sénégal river basins and the Lake Chad basin and their drainage networks

Chad Basin, Chad also spelled Tchad, vast depression in Central Africa that constitutes the largest inland drainage area on the continent. Lake Chad, a large sheet of fresh water with a mean depth of between 3.5 and 4 feet (1 and 1.2 metres), lies at the centre of the basin but not in its lowest part. The area is lined with clay and sand sediments and is rimmed by mountains, including the Tibesti Massif (north), Ennedi plateau region (northeast), Ouaddaï (east), and the Oubangui Plateau (south).

The Chad Basin is a downwarped section of the Precambrian African Shield. Most of the older crystalline rocks are covered by more-recent deposits. The most significant physiographic influence on the basin was a much larger ancient sea, sometimes called Mega-Chad, that formerly occupied it. At its maximum extent the sea was more than 600 feet (180 metres) deep, occupied an area of approximately 154,400 square miles (400,000 square km), and drained into the Atlantic Ocean through the Benue River system. It experienced four high stages between 41,000 and 2,300 years ago. The history of the sea is documented in the stratigraphic record, which includes thick layers of diatomaceous earth, lacustrine sands, terraced shorelines, and the remains of modern fish and mollusks in now-arid tracts of the basin. The floor of the basin dips to the northeast of the modern lake, reaching its lowest point in the Djourab Depression, some 300 miles (480 km) away. Lake Chad occasionally overflows into the generally intermittent El-Ghazal River leading into the depression, but it is usually confined by the dune fields of Kanem.