Palaeogeography and tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of the Aptian Ezanga‐Loémé evaporites along the proximal domain of the south Gabon‐Congo‐Cabinda margin

Abstract

During the Early Cretaceous, massive evaporite accumulations formed in the opening South Atlantic. However, the depositional model of these salts is still poorly constrained at the scale of the West African margin. The present study focuses along the proximal domain of the south Gabon‐Congo‐Cabinda margin and is based on (i) log interpretations of 246 wells crossing undeformed to weakly deformed evaporite intervals and (ii) a structural characterization of the basement. The evaporites show 11 regional evaporite depositional cycles (CI–CXI) bounded by meter‐thick shale beds. The cycles display alternating meter‐scale carnallite‐halite beds that can be correlated over several hundred kilometres, and CVI, CVII, CVIIIa and CX culminate in localized tachyhydrite accumulations. Cross section correlations and isopach maps help to understand the palaeogeographical evolution of each cycle and depositional environments that evolved from relatively deep at the base of cycles, to very shallow at their top. CI formed a mosaic of halite‐prone depocenters deposited in pre‐salt topographic relief. CII and CIII were deposited uniformly over a flattened basin in a highly extended brine pond. From CIV to CVIIIa, the stratigraphic architecture of the salts was shaped by freshwater inflow sourced from the north and possible basement movements. This setting, together with an increased confinement of the proximal domain from the distal one with basin drawdown, favoured the development of depocenters with perennial subaqueous conditions and extreme salinities, in which more than 70 m of tachyhydrite accumulation could locally be preserved. From CVIIIb to CXI, the basin returned to a flat depositional setting without well‐developed depocenters and with increasing subsidence westwards. Marine influx increased starting from CX, allowing the deposition of sulphate beds. The salt section is capped by anhydrite deposits interbedded with clastic and dolomite, before the final marine invasion of the basin. For the first time, this study provides a large‐scale depositional tectonostratigraphic setting of the Aptian salts in the proximal domain of the West African margin. The results are of interest for K‐Mg salts exploration resources in the Aptian and pave the way for further investigation of the salt depositional environment in the distal domain of the margin.