n the Adamawa Plateau (Northern Cameroon), doleritic dykes belong to a magmatic activity which predated the Cenozoic alkaline volcanism of the Cameroon Line. They have the chemical composition of continental tholeiites with Nb-Ta- and Ti-negative anomalies. This magmatism is interpreted as being derived from a sub-continental lithospheric source, which may have been contaminated during a former subduction event, linked to the Pan-African convergence. It is related to an early stage of continental break-up, which was contemporaneous or predated the Cretaceous tholeiitic magmatism of predominantly asthenospheric origin, which indicates a lithospheric thinning.
