Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:53:56.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Cenomanian hiatus in the Southern Benue Trough, Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

L. C. Amajor
L. C. Amajor
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Basal Turonian Ezeaku Sandstone ridges along the Cenomanian hiatus in Afikpo area contain sandstone pebbles, cobbles, and boulders randomly distributed in nearly all the coarsening upward subfacies of the host units. Contacts with the host sandbody are sharp and, in places, lined with solution grooves. Generally, the angular to subrounded clasts have their 2 mm rims ferruginized, are fine to coarse grained and very strongly bioturbated. They are compositionally and texturally more similar to the adjacent Albian Asu River Group sandunits. These characteristics suggest an extrabasinal origin for these marine sandstone clasts. Albian Asu River Group sediments uplifted by the Cenomanian deformation are the most likely source. The general absence of similar clasts towards the eastern palaeostrandline where the primary Cretaceous source rocks lay is consistent with the interpretation. The remarkable parallelism between the trend of the clast outcrops and the axis of the Santonian anticlinorium (NE–SW) suggests the same axial direction for both tectonic phases.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 122 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 39 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asmus, H. E. & Ponte, F. C. 1973. The Brazilian marginal basins. In The South Atlantic Ocean Basins and Margins (ed. Nairn, A. E. M. & Stehli, F. G.), pp. 83–133. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Banerjee, I. 1980. A subtidal bar model for the Ezeaku sandbodies, Nigeria. Journal of Sedimentary Geology 25, 291–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fayose, E. A. & De Klasz, I. 1976. Microfossils of the Ezeaku Formation (Turonian) at Nkalagu Quarry, Eastern Nigeria. Journal of Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society 13, 51–9.Google Scholar
Folk, R. L. 1968. Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks, 1st ed. Austin, Texas: Hamphills Bookstore Press. 170 pp.Google Scholar
Kogbe, C. A. & Okeudo, O. E. 1978. Cartographic and stratigrahic investigations around the Afikpo–Amaseri area (southeast Nigeria). Bulletin Geology Deparment, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria 1, 19–32.Google Scholar
Offodile, M. E. & Reyment, R. A. 1976. The stratigraphy of the Keana–Awe area of the middle Benue region of Nigeria. Bulletin of the Geological Institute of the University of Uppsala 7, 37–100.Google Scholar
Ogbukagu, K. N. 1974. Preliminary investigations of the beneficiation of some Cretaceous shales in parts of East-Central State. Journal of Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society 8, 5–16.Google Scholar
Nwachukwu, S. O. 1972. The tectonic evolution of the southern portion of the Benue trough, Nigeria. Geological Magazine 109, 411–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petters, S. W. 1976. Mid Cretaceous paleoenvironments and biostratigraphy of the Benue Trough, Nigeria. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 89, 151–4.Google Scholar
Reyment, R. A. 1965. Aspects of the Geology of Nigeria, 1st ed. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. 145 p.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. M. 1950. Pore space reduction in sandstones. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 34, 701–16.Google Scholar
Young, S. W. 1976. Petrographic textures of detrital polycrystalline quartz as an aid to interpreting source rocks. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 46, 595–603.Google Scholar