The piedmont geotouristic assets of Lara village (Far North Cameroon): Case of granite megaclasts and flatrocks

Granites in the locality of Lara crop out in plutons (inselbergs), megaclasts, and slabs of exceptional sizes and shapes. Even though inselbergs have been recently inventoried and studied for geotouristic purposes in Lara, megaclasts and flatrocks, mainly scattered in the Piedmont areas, are still under-investigated despite their alluring features. Thus, their inventory and study are of great importance in promoting them while scaling up Lara's geotouristic offer, as aimed at in this study. To achieve this goal, laboratory and field surveys were alternatively carried out, enabling the selection, description, and mapping of these landforms using GIS software. These geomorphosites were selected based on their aesthetic value and geological features. This study shows that Lara's piedmont is embellished with particular granite megaclasts and flatrocks. Megaclasts are isolated and clustered. They are 2 m or more in size and have infrequent shapes, encompassing Mushroom, Recumbent Dog, Split Tuber, Spiral Ice-Cream, and Bowl-like. Some megaclasts are crosscut by slits networks and riddled with coarse-grained quartz xenocrysts. Moreover, others are punctured by various coalescent tafoni. All these features enhance the geoheritage value of Lara megaclasts. Flatrocks are mostly elongated and fairly elliptical in shape. They extend to 10 square metres and are mostly bored by tens of centimetric pits. Lara's flatrocks bearing pits have significant cultural value due to the long-term activities practiced there by the local population. Through these features, granite megaclasts and flatrocks endow relevant educational values that make them suitable tools for the implementation of geotourism.