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The Phanerozoic geological evolution of the Equatorial Atlantic domain has been controlled since the end of Early Cretaceous by the Romanche and Saint Paul transform faults. These faults did not follow the PanAfrican shear zones, but were surimposed on Palaeozoic basins. From Neocomian to Barremian, the Central Atlantic rift propagated southward in Cassiporé and Marajó basins, and the South Atlantic rift propagated northward in Potiguar and Benue basins. During Aptian times, the Equatorial Atlantic transform domain appeared as a transfer zone between the northward propagating tip of South Atlantic and the Central Atlantic. Between the transform faults, oceanic accretion started during Late Aptian in small divergent segments, from south to north: Benin-Mundaú, deep Ivorian basin-Barreirinhas, Liberia-Cassiporé. From Late Aptian to Late Albian, the Togo-Ghana-Ceará basins appeared along the Romanche transform fault, and Côte dÍvoire-Parà-Maranhão basins along Saint Paul transform fault. They were rapidly subsiding in intra-continental settings. During Late Cretaceous, these basins became active transform continental margins, and passive margins since Santonian times. In the same time, the continental edge uplifted leading either to important erosion on the shelf or to marginal ridges parallel to the transform faults in deeper settings

We present a global inventory of transform continental margins, based on both a worldwide comparison of continent-ocean boundary identifications with oceanic fracture zones traces, and a compilation of published regional studies. This inventory increases the number of identified transform margins from 29 to 78. These margins represent 16% of continental margins in cumulative length and 31% of non-convergent margins. We include morphological data, published upper crustal sections, continent to ocean transition locations and published Moho shape data in the new database. This review confirms that continent to ocean transitions are sharper at transform margins than at divergent margins. It also emphasizes the structural diversity of transform margins. Associated with one third of transform margins, we define marginal plateaus as a new type of relief that corresponds to a flat but deep surface inside the continental slope, and that may be inherited from crustal thinning prior to transform faulting.Transform margin initiation appears to be favoured along propagating oceans and within cold and thick lithospheres.

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This paper reviews the geodynamic concepts and models related to transform continental margins, and their implications on the structure of these margins. Simple kinematic models of transform faulting associated with continental rifting and oceanic accretion allow to define three successive stages of evolution, including intracontinental transform faulting, active transform margin, and passive transform margin. Each part of the transform margin experiences these three stages, but the evolution is diachronous along the margin. Both the duration of each stage and the cumulated strike-slip deformation increase from one extremity of the margin (inner corner) to the other (outer corner). Initiation of transform faulting is related to the obliquity between the trend of the lithospheric deformed zone and the relative displacement of the lithospheric plates involved in divergence. In this oblique setting, alternating transform and divergent plate boundaries correspond to spatial partitioning of the deformation. Both obliquity and the timing of partitioning influence the shape of transform margins. Oblique margin can be defined when oblique rifting is followed by oblique oceanic accretion. In this case, no transform margin should exist in the prolongation of the oceanic fracture zones. Vertical displacements along transform margins were mainly studied to explain the formation of marginal ridges. Numerous models were proposed, one of the most used is being based on thermal exchanges between the oceanic and the continental lithospheres across the transform fault. But this model is compatible neither with numerical computation including flexural behavior of the lithosphere nor with timing of vertical displacements and the lack of heating related to the passing of the oceanic accretion axis as recorded by the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana marginal ridge. Enhanced models are still needed. They should better take into account the erosion on the continental slope, and the level of coupling of the transform continental margin with the adjacent oceanic lithosphere.

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The eastern Demerara Plateau offshore French Guiana was surveyed in 2003 during the GUYAPLAC cruise (multibeam bathymetry and acoustic imagery, 6-channel seismic reflection and 3.5 kHz echosounding). The data show the "post-transform" Cenozoic that the series located on the outer part of the plateau (below c. 2000 m) contain at least twelve stacked mass transport deposits (MTDs) that have recorded a history of large-scale slope failure, as well as two main normal fault sets that provide possible pathways for upward fluid migration through the series, reaching at high as the uppermost MTDs. Seabed data show that the area above the failures is characterized by circular-to-elongate (slope-parallel) depressions interpreted as fluid seeps (pockmarks), some of them have been modified by along slope currents. We suggest that the development of the MTDs to results from the combinaiton of the presence of fluid overpressure at depth the geometry of the margin's deep structure, in particular the existence of a 'free borderlateral border' on the outermost plateau. Our results also emphasise the role of stratigraphic décollements within the Cenozoic series. Highlights ► Cenozoic succession of the Demerara Plateau contains a complex of at least 12 MTDs. ► Sedimentary undulations and circular to elongated depressions occur on the seafloor. ► Faults provide fluid migration pathways through the MTDs (biogenic or thermogenic). ► Detachments occur on stratigraphic horizons that outcrop along the continental slope. ► Fluid overpressures and the distal transform free border seem to control MTD dynamics.