Hydrocarbon potential of the Meso-Cenozoic Turkana Depression, northern Kenya. I. Reservoirs: depositional environments, diagenetic characteristics, and source rock–reservoir relationships

Tiercelin, Jean-Jacques; Potdevin, Jean-Luc; Morley, C.K.; Talbot, Michael R.; Bellón, Hervé; Río, A. Polvorinos del; Gall, Bernard Le; Vétel, William

doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2003.11.007

Cited by 44 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The fluvial sandstones and conglomerates associated with the Turkana ziphiid are within the Oligo-Miocene Lokichar halfgraben (3,17), which hosts 7-km-thick sedimentary strata related to a fluvial and freshwater lacustrine depositional environment (18). This basin is superimposed on an area of widespread Cretaceous extension associated with the Anza Graben, a northwest to southeastoriented rift basin, which is also filled with Paleocene to Miocene fluviolacustrine strata that transition upward into marine units toward the Kenya-Somalia coast in the Lamu Embayment (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 17-My-old whale constrains onset of uplift and climate change in east Africa

Wichura

Jacobs

Lin

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Timing and magnitude of surface uplift are key to understanding the impact of crustal deformation and topographic growth on atmospheric circulation, environmental conditions, and surface processes. Uplift of the East African Plateau is linked to mantle processes, but paleoaltimetry data are too scarce to constrain plateau evolution and subsequent vertical motions associated with rifting. Here, we assess the paleotopographic implications of a beaked whale fossil (Ziphiidae) from the Turkana region of Kenya found 740 km inland from the present-day coastline of the Indian Ocean at an elevation of 620 m. The specimen is ∼17 My old and represents the oldest derived beaked whale known, consistent with molecular estimates of the emergence of modern straptoothed whales (Mesoplodon). The whale traveled from the Indian Ocean inland along an eastward-directed drainage system controlled by the Cretaceous Anza Graben and was stranded slightly above sea level. Surface uplift from near sea level coincides with paleoclimatic change from a humid environment to highly variable and much drier conditions, which altered biotic communities and drove evolution in east Africa, including that of primates.east Africa | Ziphiidae | uplift | drainage | paleoenvironment

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 17-My-old whale constrains onset of uplift and climate change in east Africa

Wichura

Jacobs

Lin

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Geophysical data, stratigraphic information, and dated volcanic lava flows have furnished information on the early rifting history in northern Kenya, which began during the late Mesozoic [Foster and Gleadow, 1992;1996;Morley et al, 1992;Wagner et al 1992;Ebinger, 2000;Tiercelin et al, 2004;2012]. These early episodes of extension affected areas between the Indian Ocean and the Lake Turkana region, leading to the accumulation of thick lacustrine, fluvial, and eolian strata in the NW-SE oriented Cretaceous Anza Rift (Fig.…”

Section: Geological Setting and Tectonic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cenozoic extension in the Kenya Rift from low‐temperature thermochronology: Links to diachronous spatiotemporal evolution of rifting in East Africa

et al. 2015

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Key points: Data and modeling show Paleogene and middle Miocene cooling episodes  Cooling episodes separated by stable conditions, slow exhumation or subsidence  Extension pattern is compatible with random rift initiation above a plume This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/2015TC003949 ©2015 American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved. AbstractThe cooling history of rift shoulders and the subsidence history of rift basins are cornerstones for reconstructing the morphotectonic evolution of extensional geodynamic provinces, assessing their role in paleoenvironmental changes, and evaluating the resource potential of their basin fills. Our apatite fission-track and zircon (U-Th)/He data from the Samburu Hills and the Elgeyo Escarpment in the northern and central sectors of the Kenya Rift indicate a broadly consistent thermal evolution of both regions. Results of thermal modeling support a three-phased thermal history since the early Paleocene. The first phase (~65-50 Ma) was characterized by rapid cooling of the rift shoulders and may be coeval with faulting and sedimentation in the Anza Rift basin, now located in the subsurface of the Turkana depression and areas to the east in northern Kenya. In the second phase, very slow cooling or slight reheating occurred between ~45 and 15 Ma as a result of either stable surface conditions, very slow exhumation, or subsidence. The third phase comprised renewed rapid cooling starting at ~15 Ma. This final cooling represents the most recent stage of rifting, which followed widespread flood-phonolite emplacement and has shaped the present-day landscape through rift shoulder uplift, faulting, basin filling, protracted volcanism, and erosion. When compared with thermochronologic and geologic data from other sectors of the East African Rift System, extension appears to be diachronous, spatially disparate, and partly overlapping, likely driven by interactions between mantle-driven processes and crustal heterogeneities, rather than the previously suggested north-south migrating influence of a mantle plume.

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“…This region has been described as the most important area in eastern Africa for studying a long-lived segment of the East African Rift System and how it interacted with the Cretaceous-Paleogene southern Sudan and Anza rifts (Fairhead, 1986;Reeves et al, 1987;Greene et al, 1991;Morley et al, 1999c). The present-day Lake Turkana Basin is part of a string of major N-S oriented half-grabens that developed between Cretaceous and Eocene-Oligocene to Pliocene-Pleistocene times (Mugisha et al, 1997;Morley et al, 1999a,d;Hautot et al, 2000;Tiercelin and Lezzar, 2002;Tiercelin et al, 2004Tiercelin et al, , 2011Ducrocq et al, 2010) (Fig. 1c).…”

Section: Regional Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Palaeontological evidence, both from vertebrate fossils (dinosaurs) and fossil wood of the genus Dryoxylon, suggested an Eocene to early Miocene or even Mesozoic (Cretaceous) age for all these strata (Murray-Hughes, 1933;Fuchs, 1939;Arambourg, 1943;Shackleton, 1946;Arambourg and Wolf, 1969). During the 1960s, the ''Lubur Series'' were briefly described in reports by the Geological Survey of Kenya (Joubert, 1966;Walsh and Dodson, 1969;Dodson, 1971), but this work has been largely ignored in more recent detailed studies, though mentioned in several papers (Beauchamp, 1977;Zanettin et al, 1983;Savage and Williamson, 1978;Handford, 1987;Morley et al, 1999e;Wescott et al, 1999;Tiercelin et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%