Geology

Zimbabwe is underlain by a core of Archean basement known as the Zimbabwe Craton, which is intruded by the famous Great Dyke, a SSW-NNE trending ultramafic/mafic dyke complex.  The craton is bordered to the south by the Limpopo Belt, to the northwest by the Magondi Supergroup, to the north by the Zambezi Belt and to the east by the Mozambique Belt.  The craton is principally composed of granitoids, schists and gneisses and greenstone belts.  It is overlain in the north, northwest and east by Proterozoic and Phanerozoic sedimentary basins.