Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Thomas Wagner
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Transient mid-Cretaceous thermal uplift induced by lateral heating from passing oceanic lithosphere is often invoked as a mechanism for the formation of the Coà te d'Ivoire±Ghana basement ridge in the Equatorial Atlantic. This heating event should have affected mid-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks along the ridge. However, organic maturity and clay mineral data on the thermal evolution of these rocks suggest that burial temperatures did not exceed 80 degreees C and that palaeo-geothermal gradients are not anomalous. Optical petrography and the stratigraphic pattern of temperature- sensitive parameters indicate that higher palaeo-temperature estimates are related to admixtures of preheated, detrital organic and inorganic matter. Erosion brought the sediments to their present shallow burial depths. Lack of evidence for significant thermal alteration implies that either thermal exchange between oceanic and continental lithosphere along the Cote d'Ivoire-Ghana Transform Margin was negligible, or that lateral heating by oceanic lithosphere was not strong enough to affect the sedimentary cover of the basement ridge.
Author(s): Wagner T, Pletsch T
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Terra Nova
Year: 2001
Volume: 13
Issue: 3
Pages: 165-171
Print publication date: 01/01/2001
ISSN (print): 0954-4879
ISSN (electronic): 1365-3121
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3121.2001.00333.x
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3121.2001.00333.x
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
