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

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

“…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).…”

“…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.…”

Geodynamics of the asymmetrical Santos-Namibe conjugate basins

“…Seafloor spreading started at 134.2 Ma between the Ventania and Agulhas-Malvinas Fracture Zones (red line, Collier et al, 2017). Aptian intraplate deformation was recorded by the Solimões Mega Shear Zone (dashed orange line, Caputo,1991) and by compression along the Demerara and Guinea plateaus (Casey et al, 2015).…”

“…The Proterozoic inheritance, represented by the Ribeira and Dom Feliciano belts and the presence of the Tristan-Gough Plume in the western segment of the Paraná Basin would have favored the development of a rotation pivot in the future site of the Ponta Grossa Arch. Further rotational-related intraplate deformation would be developed later, during the Aptian (Figure 4), recorded by transpressional deformation of the Solimões Mega Shear Zone (Caputo,1991) and by compression along the Demerara and Guinea plateaus (Casey et al, 2015).…”