Geochemical Characteristics of the Campano-Maastrictian Sediments of the Anambra Basin, Southeastern Nigeria - Implication For Provenance, Paleodepositional Environment, Maturity and Tectonic Setting

Abstract

The present study investigates the Anambra Basin shales to determine the provenance and maturity of the sediments using standard geochemical techniques. Twelve (12) representative samples recovered from shale sequences of The Mamu Formation and Nkporo Group of The Anambra Basin were studied to determine the sediment provenance, paleoenvironment, diagenetic conditions, maturity as well as the tectonic setting. To consider in detail and establish the inherent constituents of the Major minerals, Trace and Rare Earth elements, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses techniques was employed. The detrital minerals determined are Al2O3 (18.27% and 21.16%), TiO2 (1.73% and 1.63%) and Fe2O3 (2.78% \ and 2.85%), for Nkporo Group and Mamu Formation respectively. The enrichment of SiO2, Al2O3 and TiO2 (1.14, 1.94, 3.67 respectively) supported by Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) of 93.54 & 39.55 and Rb/Sr ratio of 0.57 & 0.40, indicate that the Anambra Basin sediments are matured. TiO2/AL2O3 binary plots, Th/Co Vs La/Sc crossplots, Th-Sc-Zr triplots and Cr, Ni concentration suggest mixed provenance of felsic to mafic source rocks for these sediments. From the log (K2O/Na2O) Vs SiO2 crossplots, a passive margin tectonic setting was determined for these sediments.