Archean - Gold Cu-Zn, Pb-Ag, Diamond

Proterozoic - Fe-Ti, gemstone, industrial minerals, coltan

Phanerozoic - Energy, Zn-Pb,Si

Gondwanaland at the close of the Mozambique East

African Cycle

During the earliest part of the Phanerozoic Eon, the super continent Gondwanaland was

traversed by a network of mobile belts at whose intercities lay relatively small stable cratons.

Indeed the whole of Gondwanaland could be turn as a proterozoic craton. At the termination

of the orogenic cycle, several previously separated cratons were welded together to produce

a single very much larger stable unit. Orogenic activity continued in peripheral mobile zones,

which formed a nearly continuous girdle enveloping the newly consolidated craton.

The enormous raft of stable continental crust constituted therefore the Gondwanaland craton.

A crustal unit that was larger than all the other craton unit that existed together. The cratonic

regions of Gondwanaland have remained free from orogenic activity to the present day though

they no longer form a continuous crustal entity.

The history of the Gondwanaland Proterozoic craton, as a single entity covers a timespan of

350 million years falling largely within the Paleozoic and was terminated by the disruption of the

supercontinent. The word disruption refers to the breakup of the supercontinent (rifting) On the

peripheral mobile belts, the segments of west and south Africa, west Antarctica, north Africa, the

Middle East and Northern India remained active long after the end of the Paleozoic Era.

The Mauretanide Belt of West Africa, the Cape Fold Belt of South Africa and the Tasman Belt of

Eastern Australia stablized at about the end of the upper Paleozoic era.

1
a) Before Disruption

I) Shield and Platform Areas

The Gondwanaland remained stable for 350 million years. The stratigraphical dating of the

terminal stages of the orogenic cycle preceding unification of the craton is hampered by the

general scarcity of fossiliferous cover rocks in the mobile belts of that time. Rocks younger than

the Cambrian seldom occur. and radiometric dating of late orogenic intrusion indicate that the

main phases of orogenic activity came to an end in early Paleozoic times.

The upper mid-Palaeozoic phase that is , Ordovician to Carboniferous, lasting some 200-

250 million years came to an end in late Carboniferous times, with radical changes in the

pattern of sedimentation and tectonics which heralded an important glaciation and a period

of continent deposition (Karoo) lasting well into the Mesozoic Era. the Mid- to upper- Paleozoic

rocks have a rather restricted distribution in the Gondwanaland craton mainly in South America

in a number of great embayment from the Andean mobile belt zone, in north africa, in Arabia, in

northern India, and in Northern Australia.

Over most of Africa, Peninsula India and southern Australia, no mid-Palaeozoic strata are

exposed.

Late Paleozoic or younger cover rock usually lie directly on basement , suggesting either , that

no mid-Paleozoic strata are exposed, and that no mid-Paleozoic cover rocks were deposited or

that the deposition has been more than balanced by erosion.

The oldest formations resting on the Mozambique (or Katanga ) Belts are Karoo Sediments, laid

down more than 200 million years after stabilization took place. If therefore, uplift and erosion

accompanied stabilization, the erosion products must have been subsequently removed from

2
the mid-Paleozoic era.

Towards the end of the upper Paleozoic Era, the age cratonic region entered into the

remarkable phase of deposition of continental facies during which new business of deposition

were defined. Not only in marginal platform areas but also within what had been Paleozoic

Shield. The deposits of this phase form a number of accelerated systems

● The Karoo of Africa

● The Gondwana of India

● The Santa Caterina of Brazil

● The Beacon Group of Antarctica

which span the upper Palaeozoic -Mesozoic boundary ranging in age from late carboniferous/

permian to late Triassic/Jurassic

These rocks do not fit to the International Stratigraphic Column. These Systems are not

found in Europe or Usa where work has been done. Work for us

The Permo-Carboniferous glaciation that opened this phase however was an important phase

with tillites and associated glacigenic deposits, which have been recorded from localities within

everyone of Gondwanaland continents.

Looking at the continent as they are arranged today, the indication of the Permo-Carboniferous

glaciation show that it was a widely distributed event extending into tropical regions, tropical

latitudes and both sides of the present day Equator, the area between 30 N and 30 S of the

Equator. This remarkable distribution requires extension of glaciation periods, of far greater

areas than those that were affected by the Pleistocene glaciation. BUT , restoration of the

3
continents to positions in a single supercontinent, reduces the glaciated areas, to dimensions

comparable with those of the Pleistocene ice sheets a position preferred by Ichang’i

Glacigene deposits often form the basal units of Gondwanaland succession. These glacial

deposits include tillites containing erratics of many sizes and kinds of unsorted argillaceous or

sandy matrix, as well as valved clays and sandstones regarded as fluvial-glacial sediments and

fine loess-like sandstones (refer to the Ablun, Embu Groups).

These glacial deposits sometimes reach extraordinary thicknesses.

The Dwyka of the Great Karoo basin of South Africa and the glacial deposits of southern

Australia and Argentina sequences are commonly 800-900 m (compared to an average of 100

m or less for Pleistocene glacial deposits in Northern Europe. The Itarare Series of the

This suggests that the Permo-Carboniferous glacial period was of a very long duration.

Alteration of tillites and fluvial glaciers with known glacial sandstones, shale or coal measures ,

suggest the occurrence of a number of interglacial periods. The accumulation of formation of

continental facies during the late Paleozoic glaciation continued in many interior basins without

interruption until the late Triassic, jurassic or even early Cretaceous times spanning 150 Ma

In Africa, part of Sahara , the Karoo Sequence, provides the most famous of the Gondwana

successions( the timing of the continental deposition of the Gondwana facies of the Karoo does

not fit the conventional stratigraphic

The Great Karoo Basin of Southern Africa

4
measuring 1000 by 500 km over the Kaapvaal Craton, Bushveld Igneous Complex and

incidentally contains maximum thickness of 8 km! Its southern boundary is the Cape Fold Belt in

which folding and erosion took place during the latest ages of Karoo deposition.

Its eastern border lies beyond the present limits of the continent but its western boundary

is marked by a tract of elevated basement rocks in south west Africa which appears o have

constituted a highland period during the period of depo

Tp the NE of the main basin Karoo Sediments extend intermittently to the Transvaal as a thinner

cover leading the middle group.

In east Africa and Madagascar, Karoo outcrops form long and narrow, tracts or basins, bounded

by early faults, or warps correlated to rifting. The variation in thickness suggest that the

sediments accumulated in elongated troughs or graben. In the western part of the continent

Karoo Sediments underlie younger terrestrial sediments in the Kalahari Basin and in the Congo

Basin both of which were to have a long history of subsidence. Far to the north, continental

deposits of the nubian sandstone facies, in North Africa and Arabia include Mesozoic

formations,

Later Mesozoic Events: Fragmentation

In mid Mesozoic times, the long times of quiescence came to an end. Systems of narrow marine

troughs and crustal warps and fractures were developed, which defined the margins of future

continents. While other fractures warps and rifts, came into existence during future continents.

You have uprise of mafic magmas and eruption of basalts on a on continent wide scale and

more localized uprise of igneous activities along newly formed

Marginal Features

5
Marine sediments of Cretaceous,Jurassic and Tertiary ages fringe the continent derived from

Gondwanaland and the continental

These marine and continental succession are of interest as proved by the potential of oil and

gas and occupy from which offshoots extend to the exterior of continents.

both inform and in arrangement the marginal marine basins differ conspicuously from the

earlier continental basins. and can be regarded as the first geological structures that defined

the borders of the future continental fragments. The marginal basins however follow structural

features for much earlier date; they are located preferentially within the mobile belts, developed

during the late proterozoic times and only locally do they extend into older tectonic provinces.

This control is clearly displayed in africa where formation of coastal basins seen in Prof.

Kennedy’s 1964 (phrase) to have been predetermined by structural conditions established

during the orogenic cycle culminating at about 500 Ma (the end of the Proterozoic)

The Benue Trough of Nigeria and adjacent territories extend inland from the Niger delta as a

branching trough. 200 km broad and flanked by crystalline massifs on either sides.

It is filled by Cretaceous and younger sediments reaching a total thickness of well over 8

Km. The bulk of the deposits are sandstones and shales but coal seams occur at more than

one horizon. (compare with Karoo and Kitui),. shallow water marine Cretaceous record the

development of a narrow gulf which appears to in direct connection with the shelf seas of

Northern Africa.

6
The Tertiary part of the sequence in non-marine (rift sequence are known to also contain oill

and gas) and the sediment thicknesses in the Niger Delta area and the submarine portion

approx. 8 Km of Nigeria sediments has Nigeria oil.

Along the east coast of Africa and in Arabia, Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks overlie rocks of the

Mozambique Belt and occupy a tract which is very broad in Arabia, Somalia and Ethiopia. But

narrower and less continuous further to the south. Jurassic strata including high fossiliferous

limestones form extensive though relatively thin outcrops in the north where they appear to have

accumulated in shelf seas connected with Tethys Sea. They are represented far south as the

southern border of Tanzania and in Western Madagascar, in Mozambique South Africa and

eastern Madagascar the oldest marine strata are cretaceous and the bulk of the basin field is

Tertiary

Huge gas deposits found in Mozambique

Triassic evaporites occur locally in Tanzania. These variations suggest that the

continental margins was blocked out relatively early in the north perhaps by

extension of a marie gulf openning from the Tethys and only later defined in the

south. No Pre-Cretaceous marine strata appear in the more southerly basins of

the West coast.

Evaporites are locally developed in east Africa. NB: salt domes? Near the base of the sequence

and are followed by shallow water sandstone and limestones interfingering with thin shales and

marl

Seismic and gravity studies indicate that the floor of the basins are faulted and that host blocks

roughly parallel with the cost existed during deposition. one such block is represented by the

island of Zanzibar and Pemba. The oil potential is immense

7
Carboniferous to Recent in Kenya: Synthesis

The oil geologists in East Africa have argued effectively that going with practice elsewhere,

major unconformities were interpreted to be associated with major tectonostratigraphic events of

global significance. e.g the breakup of Gondwanaland and the opening of the Indian Ocean and

the devt of the continental margin of the African continent.

These unconformities are very important as they help map us the global tectonic activities.

Major unconformities

archean; proterozoic; Permo-Carboniferous -Triassic-Jurassic; Cretaceous; Tertiary (Palogene)

The tectono stratigraphic unconformities

The geology of Kenya can also be discussed in terms of pre-rift, syn-rift and post-rift phases.

The regional stratigraphy in Kenya indicate that there are a number of basins located mostly in

eastern Kenya and extending to Somalia and Ethiopia and South Sudan. They have developed

in 3 stages of tetonical rifting. all refer to the Phanerozoic breakup of Gondwanaland.

The western Kenya rift basins began formiig during the early or middle Miocene (26-27 Ma) and

are still forming today. Much of the Kenay rift continue to form depocenters for accumulation of

sediments.

Pre-Rift

It is neoproterozoic to the carboniferous. we had the Gondwanaland craton by carboniferous

times, thick sediments had accumulated in fault-bounded grabens and troughs. Trending

dominantly north east-sw and also n-s

Syn-Rift

Late carboniferous to middle Jurassic

8
This began with continental to local marine deposition to the Karoo. These sediments were

deposited in a very wide NS rift system which included the Mandera-Lugh and South Anza

Grabens to the north and the coastal Somali Graben afn Lamu Embayment to the southern.

Early Triassic thermal doming preceded a further episode of middle Triassic to

During the early Jurassic a marine transgression invaded the margins of this rift with deposition

of platforms of carbonate rifts along the rift margins. This is exemplified by carbonates in the

Mandera Basin. and also shales in the central ocean of the rift.

As carbonate deposition spread, with regression basin shallowing occur during the middle

Jurassic. The consequence a salt basin also formed in the offshore region of the Lamu

embayment The platon carbonate rifts and the salt domes are known to have oil and gas.

Post-Rift

a) From Middle Jurassic to late Cretaceous times

From Callovian Time 160-154 Ma, onward the LAmu embayment and the Mandera basin

developed a passive continental margin and a gently subsiding platform basin respectively. But

intermittent tectonic activity and eustatic sea changes controlled sedimentation in many areas.

During the late Jurassic a marine transgression resumed with further deposition of carbonates

and local evaporites salt restricted to the Mandera Basins. Simultaneous to these, dark marine

shales were deposited in the Lamu.

a general regression occurred as a result of uplift to the west at the close of the Jurassic. Horst

structures such as the Garissa High were initiated during this time and resulted to be a regional

unconformity, at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary.

During the Early Cretaceous, rifting began along a NW_SE trend in the area of south Anza

Basin and subsequently spread into the area of North Anza Basin throughout much of

Cretaceous NE-SW directed tensional stress produced listric faulting with associated rollover

9
structures hosts antithetic faults. rift failure finally occurred in the Tertiary.

Continental sedimentation was dominant in the Anza basin, whereas extensive coast

From Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) through Exene time basement uplift (Horst devt) caused

white field erosion in many areas of Lamu embayment

During this period, fluvial lacustrine and and deltaic material advance from the NW with

continued subsidence offshore. recent sedimentation is characterized by overall regression of

sequences of sequences of continental deltaic and marine facies.

During this phase the N-S Turkana rift basin began to form thereby enabling interbedded

volcanic clastic and igneous intrusives to accumulate in the adjacent North Anza Basin

Ngamia 1 650 ha - area of the prospect. The first intersection

10