Concepts developed in the recently published model of the Air region (eastern Tuareg shield; Niger, Africa) as a college of three displaced terranes integrated in a single geodynamic model lead us to propose a terrane map of the Tuareg shield (500000 km 2). The 23 terranes recognized have their own lithological, metamorphic, magmatic, and tectonic characteristics and are separated by subvertical strike-slip megashear zones that can be traced for hundreds of kilometres, or by m^jor thrust fronts. Some of these boundaries have ophiolitic assemblages or molassic deposits. The Tuareg shield was shaped and partly accreted during the Pan-African orogeny (750-550 Ma), but not as a homogeneous body.
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