Here, team member Dr. Alexis Ndongo examines the cave wall stratigraphy. The caves of Ngounié Province are developed in ancient sedimentary rocks deposited around 650 million years ago, before complex life forms evolved on Earth. Here, the strata alternates from light coloured carbonates to dark coloured clayey siltstones reflecting periodic rising and falling of sea level under natural variations in Earth’s climate. The problem with climate change today is the speed and magnitude of the change over less than 200 years.
