Jurassic and Cretaceous Tectonic Evolution of the Demerara Plateau – Implications for South Atlantic Opening

Casey, Katya; Krueger, Ana; Norton, Ian O.

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.201600132

Cited by 2 publications

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“…On the Guyana margin, however, the break-up history began earlier and was more complex: rifting began in the mid-to late Jurassic (180-150 Ma) and was followed by a period of carbonate platform development. Subsequent Early Cretaceous rifting in the South Atlantic led to counterclockwise plate rotation causing uplift, compression and erosion in offshore Suriname (Casey & Norton, 2015), especially affecting the Demerara Plateau (Bihariesingh & Griffith, 2013). These differences influenced the Late Cretaceous opening or Drift cycle in these respective areas, but in all cases a passive margin was formed and further evolution was expected to be essentially comparable, at least as far as petroleum prospectivity is concerned (Wong, 2014).…”

Section: Comparing the Equatorial Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Where such barriers are limited or non-existent, oil and gas may continue migrating to the edge of the basin to be trapped in shallow reservoirs, as in the case of the Tambaredjo Field (Dronkert & Wong, 1993), or simply leak away in surface seeps (common on both sides of the Equatorial Atlantic). Evidence for structural depressions in the Late Cretaceous sequence bounded by extensively faulted and folded pre-Albian high blocks provides scope for the accumulation of ponded slope and channel turbidites (Casey & Norton 2015;Griffith, 2015). The same structure is likely to inhibit lateral migration away from parts of the Demerara Plateau.…”

Section: Comparing the Equatorial Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration for Late Cretaceous turbidites in the Equatorial African and northeast South American margins

Kelly

Doust

2016

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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The Suriname–Guyana and Ghana–Ivorian Basins exhibit strong geological similarities which are of interest from a petroleum exploration point of view. These include (1) a well-developed system of Late Cretaceous erosional canyons allowing coarse-grained shallow-water clastics to enter the deep marine basin to form attractive turbidite exploration targets; (2) a broad shelf with strong longshore currents which sort and transport coarse clastics into the canyon heads; (3) an organic-rich Cenomanian–Turonian hydrocarbon source rock which is thermally mature in the centre of the basin; and (4) a series of extensional fault-networks along the shelf margin that extend upwards from the Rift Sequence into the overlying Drift Sequence and which, along with the canyon geometries, enable migrating oil and gas to accumulate in combination structural and stratigraphic traps. In June 2007, Tullow and its partners made an important discovery in offshore Ghana, at Mahogany, which subsequently became the giant Jubilee field. Tullow is currently applying the same geoscientific technologies in offshore Suriname in the search for analogous subtle combination traps.

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Section: Comparing the Equatorial Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparing the Equatorial Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploration for Late Cretaceous turbidites in the Equatorial African and northeast South American margins

Kelly

Doust

2016

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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The structure and tectonics of the Guyana Basin

Trude

Kilsdonk

Grow

et al. 2022

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The Guyana Basin formed during the Jurassic opening of the North Atlantic. The basin margins vary in tectonic origin and include the passive extensional volcanic margin of the Demerara Plateau in Suriname, an oblique extensional margin inboard at the Guyana-Suriname border, a transform margin parallel to the shelf in NW Guyana, and an ocean-ocean margin to the northeast which morphed from transform to oblique extension. Plate reconstructions suggest rifting and early seafloor spreading began with NNW/SSE extension (∼190-160Ma) but relative plate motion later changed to NW/SE. The fraction of magmatic basin floor decreases westwards and the transition from continental to oceanic crust narrows from 200km in Suriname to less than 50km in Guyana. The geometry and position of the onshore Takutu Graben suggest it formed a failed arm of a Jurassic triple junction that likely captured the Berbice river during post-rift subsidence and funneled sediment into the Guyana Basin. Berriasian to Aptian shortening caused crustal scale folds and thrusts in the NE margin of the basin along with minor inversions of basin margin and basin segmenting faults. Stratigraphically trapped Liza trend hydrocarbon discoveries are located outboard of inverted basement faults, suggesting a link between transform margin structure and their formation.

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Jurassic and Cretaceous Tectonic Evolution of the Demerara Plateau – Implications for South Atlantic Opening

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Exploration for Late Cretaceous turbidites in the Equatorial African and northeast South American margins

Exploration for Late Cretaceous turbidites in the Equatorial African and northeast South American margins

The structure and tectonics of the Guyana Basin

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