Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T05:54:18.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Abakaliki pyroclastics – Eastern Nigeria: new age and tectonic implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

A. B. Uzuakpunwa
A. B. Uzuakpunwa
Affiliation:
Department of GeologyMemorial University of NewfoundlandSt John'sNewfoundland, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Basic to intermediate pyroclastic rocks of pre-Albian age are overlain by the Abakaliki shale of Asu River Group in Eastern Nigeria. The shale has been assigned Albian age on the basis of abundant (middle Albian?) ammonites found in it. It was folded (together with the pyroclastics) about a NE–SW trending anticlinal axis during the Santonian time. This new evidence of an early Cretaceous volcanism supports a pre-Albian rifting of the African shield prior to the opening of the Southern Atlantic. The latter event took place (probably in stages) during Albian time (i.e. less than 110 Ma ago), with a widespread marine transgression in West Africa and South America.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , January 1974 , pp. 65 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clark, J. D. 1967. Atlas of African prehistory. Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Furon, R. 1963. Geology of Africa. Hafner Publ. Co. New York, p. 76.Google Scholar
Gunthert, A. W. & Richards, H. J. 1960. The geology and petrography of the Pyroxene-Microdiorite of Eziator Hill, Eastern Nigeria. Schweiz. Min. Petr. Mitteil. 40, 347–58.Google Scholar
Larson, E. E. & La Fontain, L. 1970. Timing of Break-up of the Continents round the Atlantic as determined by Palaeomagnetism. Earth Plan. Sci. Letters 8, 341–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okezie, C. N. 1965. Abakaliki Pyroclastics. Report geol. Surv. Nigeria (unpublished).Google Scholar
Reyment, R. A. 1965. Aspects of the Geology of Nigeria. Ibadan University Press.Google Scholar
Reyment, R. A. 1969. Ammonite Biostratigraphy, Continental Drift and Oscillatory Trangressions. Nature, Lond. 224, 137–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Short, K. C. & Stauble, A. J. 1967. Outline of Geology of Niger Delta. Bull. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. 5, 761–79.Google Scholar
Stoneley, R. 1966. The Niger Delta Region in the Light of the Theory of Continental Drift. Geol. Mag. 103, 385–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, R. C. & Bain, A. D. M. 1925. The Geology of the Eastern Railway Section 1 Port Harcourt to Enugu. Bull. geol. Surv. Nigeria No. 8.Google Scholar
Wright, J. B. 1968. South Atlantic Continental Drift and the Benue Trough. Tectonophysics 6, 301–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, J. B. 1970. Comments on ‘Timing of break-up of the Continents round the Atlantic as determined by Palaeomagnetism’. Earth Plan. Sci. Letters 10, 271–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar