This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Highlights • Zircon U-Pb-Hf isotope data suggest mainly juvenile growth between 2.3-2.1 Ga • Reworking of Archaean crust in southern Ghana is confined to between 2.141-2.126 Ga • Combined isotope data suggest subduction related crustal growth • Emplacement of 2.23 Ga granodiorite contradict suggested plume initiated subduction • An evolutionary model is proposed A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t Zircon U-Pb-Hf evidence for subduction related crustal growth and reworking of Archaean crust within the Palaeoproterozoic Birimian terrane, West African Craton, SE Ghana

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This faulting tectonics analysis concerns the southernmost segment of the Dahomeyide Orogen and the West-African craton eastern margin in southeast Ghana. The analysis of strike-slip faults in the frontal units of the Dahomeyide Belt indicates that four distinct compressive events (NE-SW, ENE-WSW to E-W, ESE-WNW to SE-NW and SE-NW to SSE-NNW) originated the juxtaposition of the Pan-African Mobile Zone and the West-African craton. These paleostress systems define a clockwise rotation of the compressional axis during the structuring of the Dahomeyide Orogen (650-550 Ma). The SE-NW and SSE-NNW to N-S compressional axes in the cratonic domain and its cover (Volta Basin) suggest that the reactivation of the eastern edge of the West African craton is coeval with the last stages of the Pan-African tectogenesis in southeast Ghana. An extensional episode expressed as late normal faulting is also recorded in this study. This E-W to SE-NW extension, which is particular to the southernmost part of the Dahomeyide Belt, appears to be post-Pan-African. This extension probably contributed to the formation of a major Jurassic rifting zone that originated the Central Atlantic and the Benue Trough.