Birimian terranes from West Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger) comprise two major units: a dominantly mafic bimodal volcanic unit and a volcano-detrital unit with mostly felsic to intermediate protolith. Stratigraphic relationships of these units are still a matter of debate but current work suggest that they both formed in a short time interval around 2.1 Ga. Widespread basaltic magmas from the bimodal unit have been analyzed for REE distributions and Sr-Nd isotopes. Three Sm-Nd isochrons on tholeiitic lavas were obtained at 2.229¿0.042 Ga and initial &egr;Nd=3.6¿1.0 for Mauritania, 2.126¿0.024 Ga and initial &egr;Nd=2.9¿0.7 for Burkina Faso, 2.063¿0.041 Ga and initial &egr;Nd=3.1¿1.0 for Eastern Senegal, data which compare with the age of 2.11¿0.09 Ga and initial &egr;Nd=2.1¿1.8 obtained in Guyana by Gruau et al. (1985). Samples from other localities (Ivory Coast, Niger) give generally similar results. Although the variations of Sm/Nd ratios and the scatter of &egr;Nd(T) values from +1.2 to +4.3 preclude a single origin for these magmas, unitial isotopic heterogeneities are unlikely to bias significantly the ages given by the isochrons which are in good agreement with U-Pb zircon ages (Boher et al., 1989; unpublished data, 1990). Presence of lavas with frequent pillow structures and sediments virtually free of older recycled components suggests that Birimian terranes formed in ocean basins far from continental influence. The isotopic heterogeneities are not consistent with a MORB-like mantle source.

Most lavas are slightly depleted in LREE and inversion of the data through a melting model suggests 5-15 percent melting of a slightly depleted lherzolite. Strong depletion (Burkina Faso) and slight enrichment (Senegal) are occasionally observed. With a noticeable trend of Ti enrichment with differentiation intermediate between that of MORB and IAT, the geochemical signature of Birimian basalts does not fit the best known geodynamic environments. Back-arc or low-Ti continental flood basalts provide a marginally good agreement but still face some difficulties. Oceanic flood basalts similar to those which form oceanic plateaus (e.g. in the Nauru basin) and later accreted to continents as allochtonous terranes represent the most acceptable modern analogue of many Proterozoic basalts. It is suggested that deep plumes piercing young lithosphere can generate huge amounts of tholeiites in a short time. Birimian basalts, like many Early Proterozoic basalts, may also be viewed as recent equivalents of the Archean greenstone belts. The modern komatiite of Gorgona Island is suggested to fit this model of intraplate volcanism. Although the 2.1 Ga magmatic event in West Africa has gone virtually unnoticed in the literature, it extends over several thousand kilometers and compares with the distribution of mantle-derived magmatic activity in other major orogenic provinces (e.g. Superior). It shows that the growth rate of continents cannot be extrapolated from the data obtained solely from the best studied continents (North America, Europe, Australia). If such large crustal segments were overlooked, a spurious pattern of episodic activity of the mantle could arise. ¿1990 American Geophysical Union