Relating petroleum system and play development to basin evolution: West African South Atlantic basins

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne E. Beglinger ◽  
Harry Doust ◽  
Sierd Cloetingh
Keyword(s):  
South Atlantic ◽  
West African ◽  
Petroleum System ◽  
Basin Evolution ◽  
Play Development

Relating petroleum system and play development to basin evolution: Brazilian South Atlantic margin

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne E. Beglinger ◽  
Harry Doust ◽  
Sierd Cloetingh
Keyword(s):  
South Atlantic ◽  
Petroleum System ◽  
Basin Evolution ◽  
Atlantic Margin ◽  
Play Development

A new approach of relating petroleum system and play development to basin evolution: An application to the conjugate margin Gabon coastal and Almada-Camamu basins

AAPG Bulletin ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 96 (6) ◽  
pp. 953-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne E. Beglinger ◽  
Maarten P. Corver ◽  
Harry Doust ◽  
Sierd Cloetingh ◽  
Allison Kennedy Thurmond
Keyword(s):  
Petroleum System ◽  
Basin Evolution ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Play Development

scholarly journals Weak orogenic lithosphere guides the pattern of plume-triggered supercontinent break-up

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Dang ◽  
Nan Zhang ◽  
Zheng-Xiang Li ◽  
Chuan Huang ◽  
Christopher J. Spencer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Atlantic ◽  
West African ◽  
Dynamic Evolution ◽  
The West ◽  
Tectonic Plates ◽  
Central Atlantic Magmatic Province ◽  
Geological Features ◽  
Continental Rifts ◽  
Break Up ◽  
Central Atlantic

AbstractThe importance of nonrigid geological features (such as orogens) inside tectonic plates on Earth’s dynamic evolution lacks thorough investigation. In particular, the influence of continent-spanning orogens on (super)continental break-up remains unclear. Here we reconstruct global orogens and model their controlling effects on Pangea break-up. We show that while loci of Pangea break-up are linked to mantle plumes, development of continental rifts is guided by orogens. Rifting at Central Atlantic is driven by the modelled plume responsible for the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) within Pangea-forming orogens. South Atlantic rifting is controlled by necking between Pangea- and Gondwana-forming orogens with the assistance of plume-induced lithospheric weakening. Without CAMP-induced weakening, South Atlantic rifting fails between the West African and Amazonian cratons, but occurs between the West African and Saharan cratons instead. Our modeling on Pangea break-up is able to recreate present-day continental geometry through the combined effect of orogens and plume center-locations.

scholarly journals Kinematics of the South Atlantic rift

Solid Earth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Heine ◽  
J. Zoethout ◽  
R. D. Müller
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Kinematic Model ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
West African ◽  
Passive Margin ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
The South ◽  
Break Up ◽  
Extension Direction

Abstract. The South Atlantic rift basin evolved as a branch of a large Jurassic–Cretaceous intraplate rift zone between the African and South American plates during the final break-up of western Gondwana. While the relative motions between South America and Africa for post-break-up times are well resolved, many issues pertaining to the fit reconstruction and particularly the relation between kinematics and lithosphere dynamics during pre-break-up remain unclear in currently published plate models. We have compiled and assimilated data from these intraplated rifts and constructed a revised plate kinematic model for the pre-break-up evolution of the South Atlantic. Based on structural restoration of the conjugate South Atlantic margins and intracontinental rift basins in Africa and South America, we achieve a tight-fit reconstruction which eliminates the need for previously inferred large intracontinental shear zones, in particular in Patagonian South America. By quantitatively accounting for crustal deformation in the Central and West African Rift Zones, we have been able to indirectly construct the kinematic history of the pre-break-up evolution of the conjugate west African–Brazilian margins. Our model suggests a causal link between changes in extension direction and velocity during continental extension and the generation of marginal structures such as the enigmatic pre-salt sag basin and the São Paulo High. We model an initial E–W-directed extension between South America and Africa (fixed in present-day position) at very low extensional velocities from 140 Ma until late Hauterivian times (≈126 Ma) when rift activity along in the equatorial Atlantic domain started to increase significantly. During this initial ≈14 Myr-long stretching episode the pre-salt basin width on the conjugate Brazilian and west African margins is generated. An intermediate stage between ≈126 Ma and base Aptian is characterised by strain localisation, rapid lithospheric weakening in the equatorial Atlantic domain, resulting in both progressively increasing extensional velocities as well as a significant rotation of the extension direction to NE–SW. From base Aptian onwards diachronous lithospheric break-up occurred along the central South Atlantic rift, first in the Sergipe–Alagoas/Rio Muni margin segment in the northernmost South Atlantic. Final break-up between South America and Africa occurred in the conjugate Santos–Benguela margin segment at around 113 Ma and in the equatorial Atlantic domain between the Ghanaian Ridge and the Piauí-Ceará margin at 103 Ma. We conclude that such a multi-velocity, multi-directional rift history exerts primary control on the evolution of these conjugate passive-margin systems and can explain the first-order tectonic structures along the South Atlantic and possibly other passive margins.

Synrift subsidence and magmatism of the Central South Atlantic passive margins based on long term 2-D thermo-mechanical modelling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Theunissen ◽  
Ritske Huismans ◽  
Frank Despinois ◽  
Jean-Claude Ringenbach ◽  
François Sapin
Keyword(s):  
Sedimentary Basin ◽  
Thickness Distribution ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Passive Margin ◽  
Basin Evolution ◽  
Margin Width ◽  
Structural Style ◽  
Mechanical Modelling ◽  
Central South

<p>Here we use observations from the central South Atlantic conjugate margins to constrain the structural style of rifting and its relation with sedimentary basin evolution during the syn and early post-rift. Three synthetics transects from North (Gabon-Brazil) to South (Angola-Brazil) are used to constrain fault distribution, margin width, crustal thickness, distribution of magmatism, syn-rift sedimentary section thickness and paleo-environment from the start of rifting in the Berriasian (145 Ma) until the early post rift in the Aptian (113 Ma). This integrated study aims to understand variations in along strike structural style, magmatic output, and sedimentary basin evolution to assess the contribution of mantle processes on topography using forward 2-D thermo-mechanical modelling. We design a model setup that reproduces South Atlantic central segment main characteristics before rifting. We then explore scenarios of lithospheric thinning where strain weakening mechanisms, degree of depletion of lithopsheric mantle and crustal rheology are the main variables. The model accounts for decompression melting with feedbacks on temperature, viscosity and density of the mantle. The subsidence in the thermo-mechanical models is calibrated with a reference ridge elevation, where a 6 km thick oceanic crust is predicted, and explained by the different contributions on buoyancy of rifted passive margin during rifting. We discuss conditions to get magma-poor margins with/without exhumed mantle at the seafloor and conditions to reach a small topographic gradient and shallow water environment between the proximal and distal domains over more than 200 km of the wide margin during most of the syn-rift.</p>

scholarly journals Basin evolution, configuration styles, and hydrocarbon accumulation of the South Atlantic conjugate margins

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 992-1008
Author(s):  
Zhixin Wen ◽  
Shu Jiang ◽  
Chengpeng Song ◽  
Zhaoming Wang ◽  
Zhengjun He
Keyword(s):  
Marine Sediments ◽  
Fracture Zone ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Basin Evolution ◽  
The South ◽  
Passive Margins ◽  
Marine Shale ◽  
Lacustrine Shale ◽  
Northern Segment

The basins of the South Atlantic passive margins are filled with early rifting stage lacustrine sediments (Barremian, 129–125 Ma), transitional lacustrine and marine sediments (Aptian, 125–113 Ma), and drift stage marine sediments since early Cretaceous (Albian, 113 Ma). The South Atlantic margins can be divided into three segments by the Rio Grande Fracture Zone and the Ascension Fracture Zone according to variations in the basin evolution history and configuration style. The lacustrine shale and marine shale source rocks are developed in the rift stage and drift (post-rift) stage in the South Atlantic passive margins, respectively. The southern segment of the margins is dominated by the lacustrine sedimentary filling in the rifted stage overlain by a thin marine sag system as a regional seal, where the hydrocarbons are mainly accumulated in the structural-stratigraphic lacustrine reservoirs formed in the rift stage. The middle segment developed salty rift-sag-type basins with rift and sag systems and with salt deposited in the transitional intercontinental rift stage, where the lacustrine shale in the lower part of the rifted lacustrine sequence and the marine shale in the lower part of the sag sequence formed in the marine post-rift stage are high-quality source rocks. This segment in the middle is mainly dominated by pre-salt lacustrine carbonate and post-salt marine turbidite plays. The northern segment is characterized by sag-type basins with a narrowly and locally distributed rifted lacustrine system and its overlying widely distributed thick marine sag systems. Gravity-flow (mostly turbidite) marine sandstones as good reservoirs were extensively developed in the sag stage due to the narrow shelf and steep slope. The post-rift marine shales in the lower part of the sag sequence are the main source rocks in the northern segment and the hydrocarbons generated from these source rocks directly migrated to and accumulated in the deep marine turbidite sandstones in the same sag sequence formed in the drift stage. From southern segment to northern segment, source rocks and hydrocarbon accumulations tend to occur in the stratigraphically higher formations. The hydrocarbon accumulations in the southern segment are mainly distributed in the rifted lacustrine sequence while that in the northern segment primarily occur in the post-rift marine sequence.

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