Iullemmeden Basin

The Ullemmeden Basin (linguistic variants: Iwllemmedan, Aulliminden, Ioullemmeden, Ouelleminden Basin; French also: Le Bassin de I'Azawagh ) is lying in the interior of West Africa large inland basin, the territories of the countries of Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Benin recorded. The north - south extension is nearly 1000 km, the expansion from east to west is about 800 km. The name goes back to the Ullemmeden, which form the largest group of Sahel Tuareg with about 200,000 people.

It is believed that the basin had its origin originating in the transition period from Permian to Triassic (Permian - Triassic boundary ) and the existing faults were formed during the Late Cretaceous. During the Tertiary, the basin was then filled with sediments. Two striking faults extend a hand from north-north - east by south- south- westerly direction, directly through the center of the basin, on the other hand, from west-south - west to east -north-east, near the Aïr Mountains. The sedimentation of the long time between Cambrian and Pleistocene resulted in a layer depth 1500-2000 m.

Valuable elements and minerals are embedded in Ullemmeden Basin. Thus one finds in addition to uranium and copper, coal and salt deposits. The Niger is one of the world's largest producer of uranium.