The role that plate tectonics, inferred stress changes and stratigraphic unconformities have on the evolution of the West and Central African Rift System and the Atlantic continental margins

Abstract

The Muglad rift basin of Sudan, is a good example of polyphase rifting, with at least three major phases of basin development. Each phase has resulted in the generation of source rock, reservoir and seal geology with structural traps often closely linked to basement highs. In this paper we investigate on a regional scale the tectonic processes that have contributed to rift basin development.On a regional scale, the evolution of the Africa-wide Mesozoic rift system is intimately linked to relative movements of African sub-plates and to global plate tectonic processes and plate interactions. Changes in plate interactions are observed in the oceanic crust as azimuth changes of fracture zone geometries and by inference have caused significant modifications to both the orientation and magnitude of the motions of the African sub-plates. Such plate motion processes have controlled the polyphase development of the West and Central African Rift System. On the basinal scale, changes of sub-plate motions have resulted in changes in the stress field which have had a clear impact on the deformation and fault geometries of rift basins and on the resulting stratigraphy. The construction of the first unified stratigraphic chart for the West and Central African Rift System shows a close correlation in the timing of the major unconformities with the timing of changes in relative plate motion as observed in the changes of the azimuthal geometry of the oceanic fracture zones in the Central Atlantic. Since similarly timed unconformities exist along the continental margins of Africa and South America, we propose that the causative mechanism is change in relative plate motion which leads to an increase or decrease in the tension on the plate and thus controls the strength or effective elastic thickness, Te, of the crust/plate beneath the margins. This results in a focused change in isostatic response of the margin during short-period changes in relative plate motion; i.e. more tension will mean that loads are not compensated locally resulting in local uplift of the margin.