Early Cretaceous deltaic sedimentary environment of the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana transform margin as deduced from deep dive data

Abstract

During the Equanaute cruise (June 1992), 14 submersible deep dives were conducted along the steep southern slope of the Cote d’Ivoire–Ghana marginal ridge. In situ diving observations and sample analysis were done to specify the clastic lithology of a sedimentary sequence about 2200 m thick. Most of the rocks collected consist of dark shales, greenish lenticular- to wavy-bedded siltstones and large-scale trough cross-bedded sandstones. Lithofacies analysis favors a deltaic origin for this sedimentary synrift succession, which is probably of Early Cretaceous age.