Tectonic activity appears to have occurred in the Tibesti already between the Carboniferous and the Cretaceous, that is between 358.9 ± 0.4 and 66 million years ago. During the earliest stage of volcanism on Tibesti, alkali basalts formed large plateaus. Later, the central volcanoes developed on top of these plateaus. Volcanism in Tibesti has been explained with a mantle plume, as has been proposed for other African volcanoes, although recently tectonic effects of the collision between Africa and Europe and their effects at a distance have also been advanced as an explanation.