Geology of Offshore Southern Namibia: Evidence from Tectonic and Basin-Fill Modeling Based on Modern Seismic Data

Abstract

License 2815 is located offshore southern Namibia between Cape Dernberg and the South African border, approximately 50 km east of the 1974 Kudu gas discovery. Interactive workstation modeling of modern two-dimensional seismic data from the License area provides an improved understanding of the geology and tectonic history of this unexplored region. Although presently a broad submarine shelf influenced by late Cretaceous-Tertiary deltaic sedimentation from the Orange River, Interpretation based on modern seismic coverage has resulted in the recognition of a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rift complex associated with the initial opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Geologic modeling suggests that a seismically-identified elongate rift localized along a major westward-dipping bounding fault may contain significant thicknesses of Neocomian( ) clastic sediments. Barremian-Aptian marine flooding of this area followed the rifting episode. Mixed marine and deltaic sedimentation has dominated the region since the middle Aptian. Palinspastic restorations of depth-converted seismic lines have helped to unravel the episodic tectonic history of rifting in this area. Input of geologic parameters, including relative sea level changes and sedimentation rates, has yielded computer-derived basin-fill models, which have in turn been integrated with the local tectonic model to make lithology predictions.