Inversion tectonics of the benue trough

Abstract

The Benue Trough, an aulacogen at the entrant of the Gulf of Guinea in Nigeria, has been historically studied from the concepts of ortho-mio-eu-geosynclines at outcrops and in the subsurface. Its structural evolution reveals a tectonic scenario compatible with Plate tectonic evolution of the Atlantic Ocean. Spreading was, however, arrested by the rotation of the hot spot plumes onto the shoulders of the trough such as unto the Cameroom volcanic line by a sequence of events including crustal thinning and doming, rifting and faulting, grabens and horst formation, volcanism and subsidence, imbricate sedimentation and eustatic sea level changes, as shown by surface and sub surface studies.


Keywords: ortho-geosyncline, mio-geosyncline, eu-geosyncline, aulacogen

Global Journal of Geological Sciences Vol. 3(2) 2005: 163-167