Living Africa: A critical overview and scientific advances
Living Africa has been successful in advancing our understanding of the post-rift evolution of the western (Orange Basin) and southern margins primarily from seismic profiles. It has also been successful in our understanding of the late Cenozoic evolution of the margin and deep basins through seismi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Conference Object |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/17420/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.27802 |
| Summary: | Living Africa has been successful in advancing our understanding of the post-rift evolution of the western (Orange Basin) and southern margins primarily from seismic profiles. It has also been successful in our understanding of the late Cenozoic evolution of the margin and deep basins through seismic profiles and the sedimentology and geochemistry of recovered sediment cores. The results to date are clearly linked and it remains for the three subprojects to coordinate a meaningful synthesis. The principal scientific advances can be divided into post-drift (mid Cretaceous) hydrocarbon basin modelling (GFZ and AWI) and the late Cenozoic sedimentary record (AWI and UCT). The sedimentary and structural evolution of the post-rift sedimentary basin has been reconstructed for the offshore Orange Basin from the interpretation of approximately 6000 km of 2D seismic data. A 3D petroleum systems model implies an active kitchen area generating hydrocarbons in the outer western part of the basin. Gas leakage features mapped in the seismic sections relate to structural and sedimentary development with migration modelled to occur along stratigraphic horizons towards the inner near-shore part of the basin. Further modelling will constrain the pathways, timing and duration of hydrocarbon migration events and a basin-wide quantification of the thermogenic gas flux to the ocean/atmosphere as a function of geologic time. The analysis of high-amplitude seismic reflections, so called bright spots, indicates anoxic conditions between ~90 Ma and ~80 Ma for the region south of South Africa. These bright spots may correlate to worldwide Oceanic Anoxic Event 3 and represent important hydrocarbon source rocks (black shales).It has become increasingly evident that the southern Africa region and the surrounding Southern Ocean are critical components of the global Earth system and that it is essential to understand the role these areas have had and continue to have in the distribution of heat by the ocean and changes in marine productivity ... |
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