Summary
The Benue Trough is an elongate rifted depression in which the sediments reach well over 5000 m thickness in places and have been strongly folded, probably by later adjustments along faults in the underlying basement. The Bida Basin is a shallow unfaulted arm of the Benue Trough. The Benue Trough probably provided the major link between the Mediterranean (Tethys Ocean) and Gulf of Guinea via the lullmedden and Chad Basins, during Upper Cretaceous times.
The Niger Delta at the southern end of the Benue Trough has been building out into the Atlantic since the end of the Cretaceous. Of the other coastal basins, the Senegal Basin is by far the largest, but the basins along the southern coast of West Africa are larger than their surface extents suggest, as substantial parts of their successions are offshore.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Adeleye, D. R. 1976. The geology of the middle Niger Basin. In Geology of Nigeria, C.A. Kogbe (ed.), Ch. 18. Lagos: Elizabethan Publishing Co.
Adighije, C. I. 1981. Gravity study of Lower Benue Trough, Nigeria. Geol. Mag. 118, 59–67.
Adighije, C. 1.1981. A gravity interpretation of the Benue Trough, Nigeria. Tectonophysics 79, 109–28.
Ajakaiye, D. E. 1981. Geophysical investigations in the Benue Trough — a review. Earth Evol. Sci. 1, 110–25.
Ajakaiye, D. E. and K. Burke 1973. A Bouguer gravity map of Nigeria. Tectonophysics 16, 103–15.
Akpati, B. N. 1978. Geologic structure and evolution of the Keta basin, Ghana, West Africa. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 89, 124–32.
Anderson, M. M., A. J. Boucot and J. G. Johnson 1966. Devonian terebratulid brachiopods from the Accraian Series of Ghana. J. Palaeont. 40, 1365–7.
Ani, E. I. 1980. Sukuliye (Sekulé) Formation, faciès equivalent of the Numanha Shale in the Upper Benue Trough, Nigeria. J. Mining Geol. 17, 91–6.
Asseez, L. O. 1976. Review of the stratigraphy, sedimentation and structure of the Niger delta. In Geology of Nigeria, C. A. Kogbe (ed.). Lagos: Elizabethan Pub lishing Co.
Aymé, J. M. 1965. The Senegal salt basin. In Salt basins round Africa, vol. 1, 83–90. London: Institute of Pet roleum.
Beaumont, C. and J. F. Sweeney 1978. Graben generation of major sedimentary basins. Tectonophysics 50, 19–23.
Behrendt, J. C. and C. S. Wotorson 1970. Aeromagnetic and gravity investigations of the coastal area and conti nental shelf of Liberia, West Africa, and their relation to continental drift. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 81, 3563–74.
Behrendt, J. C., J. Schlee, J. M. Robb and M. K. Silver-stein 1974. Structure of the continental margin of Liberia, West Africa. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull 85, 1143–58.
Benkhelil, M. J. 1982. Structural map of the upper Benue valley. J. Mining Geol. 18, 140–51.
Buffetaut, E. and P. Taqyet 1979. An early Cretaceous terrestrial crocodilian and the opening of the South Atlantic. Nature 280, 486–7.
Burke, K. 1975. Atlantic evaporites formed by evaporation of water spilled from Pacific, Tethyan and south ern oceans. Geology November, 613–16.
Burke, K. 1976. Neogene and Quaternary tectonics in Nigeria. In Geology of Nigeria, C. A. Kogbe (ed.). Lagos: Elizabethan Publishing Co.
Cratchley, C. R. and G. P. Jones 1965. An interpretation of the geology and gravity anomalies of the Benue Valley, Nigeria. Overseas Geol. Surv., Geophys. Paper 1. London: HMSO.
Cratchley, G. R., P. Louis and D. E. Ajakaiye 1984. Geophysical and geological evidence for the Benue- Chad Basin Cretaceous rift valley system and its tectonic implication. J. Afr. Earth Sci. 2, 140–50.
Culver, S. J. and H. R. Williams 1979. Late Precambrian and Phanerozoic geology of Sierra Leone. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 136, 605–18.
Falconer, J. D. 1911. The geology and geography of northern Nigeria. London: Macmillan.
Furon, R. 1963. Geology of Africa. London: Oliver & Boyd.
Hastings, D. A. and M. Bacon 1979. Geologic structure and evolution of the Keta Basin, West Africa (Discus sion of Akpati, 1978, with reply). Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 90, 889–92.
Hoque, M. 1977. Pétrographie differentiation of technically controlled Cretaceous sedimentary cycles, south eastern Nigeria. Sed. Geol. 17, 235–45.
Jackson, J. A. 1980. Reactivation of basement faults and crustal shortening in orogenic belts. Nature 283, 343–6.
Kogbe, C. A. 1976. The Cretaceous and Palaeogene sediments of southern Nigeria. In Geology of Nigeria, C. A. Kogbe (ed.). Lagos: Elizabethan Publishing Co.
Kogbe, C. A., D. E. Ajakaiye and G. Matheis 1983. Confirmation of a rift structure along the Mid-Niger Valley, Nigeria. J. Afr. Earth Sci. 1, 127–32.
Lees, G. M. 1952. Foreland folding. Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 108, 1–34.
Lehner, P. and P. A. C. de Ruiter 1977. Structural history of Atlantic margin of Africa. Bull. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. 61, 961–81.
Le Marechal, A. and P. M. Vincent 1972. Le fessé Cretacé du Sud-Aclamaoua, Cameroun. In African geology, T. F. J. Dessauvagie arid A. J. Whiteman (eds). Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
Mensah, M. K. and W. G. Chaloner 1971. Lower Carboniferous lycopods from Ghana. Palaeontology 41, 357–69.
Morel, S. W. 1979. The geology and mineral resources of Sierra Leone. Econ. Geol. 74, 1563–76.
Nwachukwu, S. O. 1972. The tectonic evolution of the southern portion of the Benue Trough, Nigeria. Geol. Mag. 109, 411–19.
Offodile, M. E. and R. A. Reyment 1977. Stratigraphy of the Keana-Awe area of the middle Benue region of Nigeria. Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ. Uppsala(NS) 7, 37–66.
Ojo, S. N. and D. E. Ajakaiye 1976. Preliminary interpretation of gravity measurements in the middle Niger Basin area, Nigeria. In Geology of Nigeria, C. A. Kogbe (ed.). Lagos: Elizabethan Publishing Co.
Olade, M. A. 1975. Evolution of Nigeria’s Benue Trough (aulacogen): a tectonic model. Geol. Mag. 112, 575–83.
Petters, S. W. 1978. Stratigraphic evolution of the Benue Trough and its implications for the Upper Cretaceous palaeogeography of West Africa. J. Geol. 86, 311–21.
Petters, S. W. 1979. Stratigraphic history of the south-central Saharan region. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 90, 753–60.
Petters, S. W. and C. M. Ekweozor 1982. Origin of mid-Cretaceous black shales in the Benue trough, Nigeria. Palaeogeog. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol. 40, 311–19.
Reyment, R. A. 1965. Aspects of the geology of Nigeria. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
Reyment, R. A. 1980. Biogeography of the Saharan Cretaceous and Palaeocene epicontinental transgressions. Cretaceous Res. 1, 299–327.
Reyment, R. A. and E. A. Tait 1972. Biostratigraphical dating of the early history of the South Atlantic Ocean. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 264, 55–95.
Reyment, R. A., P. Bengtson and E. A. Tait 1976. Cretaceous transgressions in Nigeria and Sergipe-Alagoas (Brazil). An. acad. bras. Cienc. (Supp.), 253–64.
Spengler, A. de, J. Castelain, J. Cauvin and M. Leroy 1966. Le bassin Secondaire-Tertiare du Senégal. In Sedimentary basins of the African coast, part 1, D. Reyre (ed.). Paris: ASGA.
Wright, J. B. 1976. Origins of the Benue Trough — a critical review. In Geology of Nigeria, C. A. Kogbe (ed.). Lagos: Elizabethan Publishing Co.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 J. B. Wright, D. A. Hastings, W. B. Jones & H. R. Williams
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wright, J.B. (1985). The Benue Trough and coastal basins. In: Wright, J.B. (eds) Geology and Mineral Resources of West Africa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3932-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3932-6_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-015-3934-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-3932-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive