Trace elements geochemistry, total organic carbon, palaeosalinity, and hydrothermal characteristics of the Cretaceous black shale in the Mamfe Basin (West Africa)

The shales of the Mamfe basin were geochemically analyzed to determine their paleosalinity and hydrothermal characteristics which existed at the time of their deposition. Elemental ratios such as boron/gallium (B/Ga), strontium/barium (Sr/Ba), and total sulphur/total organic carbon (S/TOC) and TOC/S were applied for paleosalinity reconstruction. The shales of the Mamfe basin show B/Ga is <3, Sr/Ba <0.2, and S/TOC is <0.1 and TOC/S >6 the values of the elemental ratio show that the Mamfe shales were deposited in a freshwater environment. For hydrothermal activities ratio, Sc/Cr was used and Binary diagrams TOC vs P and Co/Zn vs TOC were constructed to discriminate between normal water, mixed and hydrothermal influence. The Sc/Cr ratio was greater than 0.14 indicating that the shales in the Mamfe basin were deposited in a normal water environment with no influence from hydrothermal processes. The binary discriminant diagram of TOC vs P and Co/Zn vs TOC shows that all the shales were not influenced by any hydrothermal processes during the time of their deposition.