A Paleotectonic Atlas of the African Plate : Permian to Recent (Draft)

Abstract

We have compiled a series of maps at 19 geological levels illustrating the tectonic history of the African Plate since the Permian. The full set of maps covering related themes is available at www.africageologicalatlas.com. The objective of this work is to provide a product to all workers on African geology to illustrate the large scale controls on the projects they are working on and in particular to stimulate thinking on the wider regional controls on their region of study.. There is somewhat of an emphasis on continental margins in this paper, as this is where most new data have become available in recent years and where the most recent revisions to previous models lie. In addition, an analysis of the origin of all rifts is made.

Full text

A Paleotectonic Atlas of the African Plate : Permian to Recent
Duncan S. Macgregor,
africageologicalatlas project,
26 Gingells Farm Road, Reading, UK.
duncan.macgeology@gmail.com
Colin J. Reeves
Earthworks
Acterom41a, 2611PL Delft, Netherlands
reeves.earth@planet.nl
Abstract
The fragmentary release of petroleum data defining the deep structure and stratigraphy of African
basins has been integrated with existing literature to compile 19 tectonic maps over key geological
intervals from Permian to Recent times.
African plate margins range in their age of opening from Late Triassic (off Lebanon), through
Early/Middle Jurassic (Eastern Mediterranean, Central Atlantic, Somali Basin) to ongoing (northern Red
Sea). Their opening follows propagational trends, e.g. from the eastern Mediterranean to Guinea, and
from the Somali Basin in a ‘smile’ shape around southern Africa, eventually to Guinea. Just under half
of African margins correspond to the rifted margin model. North Africa margins are controlled initially by
transforms, while volcanic rifted margins dominate in southern Africa. The poorest controlled bounding
ocean, the eastern Mediterranean, is demonstrated through well and seismic interpretations to have
commenced spreading in late Early to early Middle Jurassic times. Much of West African Cretaceous
tectonics, including the generation of transform systems, is related to the counter-rotation of Africa
versus South America initiated through South Atlantic opening, itself driven by the Bouvet Plume. From
the Aptian onwards, Africa receives a series of transpressional shocks, largely derived from the Tethyan
margin. The most pronounced such event occurs in the Santonian, which is a global scale event, with
events in the Indian and Atlantic Ocean also likely affecting parts of Africa.
Africa is segmented by many interior rifts, with these developed on all mapped intervals, though with
peaks of activity in the Permian (South Africa), Late Triassic (North Africa), Early Cretaceous (Central
Africa) and Neogene (East Africa). In the Early Cretaceous, a stress regime is imposed which creates a
series of NW-SE trending rifts across the plate: this switches gradually to a N-S rift trend in the
Cenozoic. Passive rifts show a high degree of inheritance and can be orientated both perpendicular and
parallel to associated transforms. This type of rift dominates in the Mesozoic, with active plume-related
rifts becoming the principal type as mantle-driven tectonics becomes increasingly important in the
Cenozoic. Analogue-driven hypotheses are proposed for the origin of the more poorly controlled African
rifts, such as the Western Desert of Egypt.
The formation of the various elements of petroleum systems are responses to these tectonics. For
example, geographical trends in basin restriction and potential anoxia are observed to follow the
propagational trends of continental breakup.
Keywords: Tectonics, Maps, Africa, Plate Margins, Breakup, Rifting, Paleogeography
Highlights
• 19 Tectonic Maps compiled over the African Plate at key points in Permian-Recent history.
• Many new insights result from petroleum exploration data acquired in last 25 years.
• A propagational model is proposed for the opening of African plate margins.
• A full array of margin types is identified, with roughly half being rifted margins.
• Mesozoic rifts are dominantly passive in origin, with associations both parallel and
perpendicular to transforms.
• Mantle tectonics control rifts and swells in the Cenozoic as plate margins become distant.

1. Introduction
The African Plate provides the ideal research site for the study of extensional and plate tectonics. The
margins to the plate range from perhaps the world’s oldest (Triassic, eastern Mediterranean off
Lebanon) to the youngest (Red Sea) and form a full array of different tectonic and volcanic types,
illustrating the multiple manners in which plates breakup. We can also observe the development of a
range of rift types through the Neogene at all stages in their development (e.g. East African Rift System
(“EARS”), including their development into hyperextended rifted margins and then oceans (e.g. Red
Sea).
Yet our understanding of these extensional and transform systems is not what it should be. There are
multiple reasons for this. It is rare in Africa for the full sections of sedimentary basins to be brought to
outcrop, a result of the lack of significant compression. In rare occurrences where this does occur,
outcrop is often poor due to weathering. Hence, the understanding of African basins requires the use of
subsurface data generated from petroleum exploration activities. Much of such data lies in the archives
of oil companies, seismic companies and government bodies, often being deemed confidential. In
recent years, key data has however appeared in informal industry conferences and articles, though less
frequently in peer reviewed publications. The authors have been fortunate in being able to bring many
of these more informal data and interpretations into this study, having worked in the African oil industry
for nearly 30 years. In particular, we have organised and/or attended the Petroleum Exploration (now
Geoenergy) Society of Great Britain / Houston Geological Society ‘Africa Conference’ events, together
with a series of Geological Society of London events that have addressed specific regions of the
continent.
With such new data, we believe we are now at a point where we can display high level interpretations of
tectonic activity through time, these being relatively robust at a regional scale. We thus believe the time
has come to produce a first version of an atlas like those which exist over other continents (e.g.
Dercourt et al, 2000). We have compiled a series of maps at 19 geological levels illustrating the
tectonic, climatic, topographic, erosional and depositional histories of the African Plate since the
Permian, the full set of which is available at www.africageologicalatlas.com. This paper addresses only
the tectonics portion of this analysis and covers only the Permian to Recent Wilson cycle. There have
been less new insights in recent years on the Paleozoic, which has been previously covered in a similar
set of maps by Torsvik and Cocks (2021), so new work has not been performed for these older
intervals.
Our main objective in publishing this work is to provide a product to academic and industry workers on
African geology to stimulate thinking on the large scale controls on their region of study. We particularly
hope that others will see insights and hypotheses that we have not identified and will pursue these. For
petroleum geologists, such insights include controls on the development of traps, reservoirs and source
rocks. For reasons of space, we present only a few examples of such implications in the paper, which
mainly concern source rock prediction. We also attempt to use the maps to develop hypotheses for the
crustal or mantle mechanisms controlling the development of many African basins, an aspect which is
key for instance in predicting the heat flow histories (Macgregor, 2020) of these source rocks. The scale
of this study and lack of published seismic often means that some of these hypotheses proposed on
this aspect have low confidence at present. We hope this paper will stimulate thinking on these ideas
and look forward to many challenges to them.
2. Setting, Material and Methods
2.1 Geological Setting
The area of interest for this paper is the continental portion of the African Plate, together with its
conjugate margins, though only for times at which other Gondwanan and Tethyan plates were or still
fixed or close to Africa. Southern, western and eastern boundaries for the African Plate are well defined
by large surrounding oceans (and by now distant oceanic ridges) that have formed during the breakup
of Gondwanaland. The northern plate boundary however is less well defined and can be argued to have
changed through time. The African Plate, as currently bounded by transforms, subduction zones and

extinct ridges in this region, now includes southern Sicily, Malta, southern offshore Cyprus, western
Lebanon and Israel. At other times in the past, the plate may also have extended without intervening
subduction over much of what is now Italy and Turkey.
2.2. Source Data and Basic Methodology
The interpretations on the maps presented here are derived from a mixture of peer-reviewed papers
(Tables 1, 2), PhD theses, informal internet publications, petroleum industry investor presentations,
abstracts and verbal content of conference presentations, and informal personal communications. In
some cases, key data, particularly on deepwater areas, may be limited to a few images in a conference
Powerpoint presentation. Assertion and citations clearly present a problem for many of these sources,
but it has often been possible to find and quote interpretations in the published literature that are now
favoured by the unpublished data, thereby determining these to be our favoured models.
Our methodology can be summarised as follows:
1. Maps from the source data (Tables 1, 2) have been compiled and georeferenced, with key
lineaments then being traced off these into a manipulable ArcGIS project (Macgregor, 2024).
2. The source references have been scanned for the evidence of the timing of these lineaments
and associated uplift or subsidence. Ideally that reference includes an auditable
tectonostratigraphic chart plotting tectonic activity against time.
3. Timing aspects have then been input into attribute tables in ArcGIS, enabling the display on the
relevant maps of lineaments active at specific times. Due to uncertainties in dating and the
need sometimes to illustrate tectonic events of slightly different age, a generous time interval is
applied to each map.
4. Aspects of the paleogeography and other features that could contribute to an audit are then
mapped in a similar fashion, e.g. paleotopography, volcanics, shorelines, main sedimentary
types.
5. A technical audit is performed to resolve any discrepancies, often leading to one of several
alternative models being favoured. This integrates evidence from all the different types of data
portrayed in the maps, including, for instance, relationships between sedimentation and
tectonics. An example will be outlined in Section 2.9 for a case where multiple models have
been proposed in the peer reviewed literature and where a clear preference for one of these is
now apparent from petroleum data.
Areas of greater uncertainty, particularly in timing of activity, are labelled by question marks on the
maps. In general, the regions of highest confidence in the interpretations, supported by an abundant
peer-reviewed literature, are onshore northern and southern Africa. Less well documented regions, with
correspondingly lower confidence in their interpretation, include the deepwater regions bordering the
African continent to the east, north and NW, and the onshore regions of the Sahel, Mozambique,
Somalia and Madagascar. The deep offshore areas are those where we are most dependant on the
release in informal forms of petroleum data, particularly seismic or interpretations made on that seismic.
The ICS time scale of 2023 (International Commission on Stratigraphy, 2023) is used in determining
age assignments.
2.3 Interpretation Methodology: Plate Model
The plate tectonic model applied over sub-Saharan African margins has been compiled over many
years by Colin Reeves and is available on the website www.reeves.nl/gondwana. Supporting
discussions are given in in Reeves and De Wit (2002), Reeves et al (2004, 2016), Reeves and Souza
(2021) and Reeves (2018, 2023), together with a series of research notes on specific topics on the
above website. The Tethyan margins of North Africa are not covered by the Reeves reconstructions,
thus the history and fits of conjugate plates in that region have been determined from the literature
listed on Table 1, with amendments to the region of greatest dispute in the eastern Mediterranean.
These Tethyan plates are georeferenced relative to the Africa coastline on the maps, which often
distorts them geographically. This, together with the higher uncertainties over these margins, means
that the portrayal of Tethyan and European plates and platelets should be regarded as schematic. The
discussions in the remainder of this section focus on our more accurate and validated reconstructions of
the Indian, Antarctic and Atlantic facing margin

Area
Plate Tectonics/Margin Definition
Intra Plate Lineaments (Rifts etc) and Timing
All Regions
Reeves (web, 2024)*, Scotese (2014)*, Torsvik and
Cocks (2011)*
Meghraoui et al (2016)
Israel, Lebanon
and Turkey
Lapierre et al (2007), Menant et al (2016)*,
Robertson and Mountrakis (2006)
Gardosh et al (2010, 2011), Gardosh and Druckman
(2006), Gao et al (2020), Hall et al (2005), Shabar (1994)
Eastern
Mediterranean
Longacre et al (2007), Jagger et al (2018)*, Gao et al
(2020)*, Scotese and Schettino (2017), Tugend et al
(2019)*
Gao et al (2020), Jagger et al (2018), Papadimitriou et al
(2018)*
Egypt
Bosworth et al (2015), Bosworth and Tari (2021),
Guiraud et al (1985), Moustafa et al (2015), Moustafa
(2020)*
Libya/Ionian
margin
Bruno et al (2024), Tugend et al (2019)*
Abunaser and McAfferty (2014, 2015), Antekell (1996),
Boote (unpublished)* , Martin et al (2008),
Algeria/Tunisia
Stzerzynski et al (2021)
Bodin et al (2010), Boote et al (1998), Bruna et al 2023,
Escoca et al (2021), Said et al (2011)
West Med./ Sicily
Carminati et al (2012)*, Handy et al (2010)*
Catalano et al (1991, 1996, 2013), Di Stefano et al (2015)
Morocco
Casson (2020), Labails et al (2010)*
Frizon et al (2008*, 2009, 2011), Hoepffner et al 2006),
Roure et al (2012)
Central Atlantic
incl NW African
margin
Biari et al (2021), Casson (2020)*, Kusznir et al
(2017), Labails et al (2010)*, Trude et al (2022)*,
Von Hinsbergen et al (2020)*
Casson (2020)*, Davison (2005), Le Roy and Pique
(2001), Leleu et al (2016), Ye et al (2017)*
Guinea to Benin
margin
Antobreh et al (2009)*, Ye et al (2017)*
Antobreh et al (2009)*, Davison et al (2016), Markwick
et al (2023) , Ye et al (2017)*, Zinecker (2020)*
Nigeria/Cam.
Saugy and Eyer (2003), Popoff (1988)*
Equatorial Guinea
to Angola
Araujo et al (2023), Baudino et al (2018), Caixeta et
al (2014), Marton and Pascoe (2020), Moulin et al
(2010)*
Araujo et al (2023), Chaboureau et al (2013)*, Davison
and Eagles (1999), Karner and Driscoll (1999)
Cuvette Centrale
Giresse (2005), De Wit et al (2015)
Namibia
Macdonald et al (2003)*, Moulin et al (2010)*
Baby et al (2018), Macdonald et al (2003)*, Miller
(2008), Serica Energy (2014)*
South Africa
Eagles and Eisermann (2020*), Linol and de Wit
(2016)*
Bhattacharya and Duval (2016), Catuneau et al (2005)*,
Markwick et al (2023), Paton et al (2023)*
‘Karoo’ (Permo-
Trias) rifts
Catuneau et al (2005)*, Macgregor (2018), Miller (2008),
Orpen et al (1989) , Reeves et al (2004), Visser and
Praekelt (1998)*
Red Sea
Bosworth et al (2005)*, Stockli and Bosworth
(2018)
Gulf of Aden
Bosworth and Stockli (2016)*, Purcell (2018)*
Purcell (2018)*
Central African
Rift System /
Sahel
Ahmed et al (2020, 2024), Fairhead (2022), Genik
(1991)*, Guiraud and Bosworth (1997)*, Konate et al
(2019), Liu et al (2017), McHargue et al (1992)*
Ethiopia/Somalia
Davidson et al (2017), Mortimer et al (2020), Stanca
et al (2016),, Reeves (2018)*
Bosworth et al (2005)*, Purcell (2018)*, Worku and Astin
(1992)
East African Rift
System
Macgregor (2015)*, Michon et al (2022), Klimke and
Franke (2016), Morley et al (1999b,) Purcell (2018)*
Tanzania-Kenya
Pheathan et al (2016), Reeves (2018)
Davison and Steel (2018), De Franca (2012)*, Franke et al
(2015), Markwick et al (2021), Morley et al (1999)*
Mozambique
Mueller and Jokat (2019)*, Reeves (2018), Roche et
al (2021, 2022), Senkans et al (2019)*.
Davison and Steel (2018), Franke et al (2015), Markwick
et al (2021), Salman and Adballa (1995)*
Madagascar
Pheathan et al (2016), Reeves (2018)*
Davison and Steel (2018), Markwick et al (2021)
Arabian Plate
Barrier et al (2007)*
Barrier et al (2007)*
European Plates
Handy et al (2010)*, Jagger et al (2018*), Menant et
al (2016)*, von Hinsbergen et al (2020)*
Doblas (1991)
S. American Plate
Lovecchio et al (2020)*
Costa et al (2002), Matos et al (2021)*, Davison and
Eagles (1999), Lovecchio et al (2020)*, MacDonald et al
(2003)*, Popoff (1988)*
Indian and
Antarctica Plates
Reeves (2018)*
N. America Plate
Davis et al (2018), von Hinsbergen et al (2020)
Table 1 : Main tectonic references used in compilation of maps. Bold=key papers, * - contains sequential tectonic
maps

Area
Volcanism
Topography
Shorelines and Facies
All Regions
Hearn et al (2001)
Paul et al 2014)
Scotese (1991, 2014) , Markwick (web, 2024), Reyment
and Dingle (1987)
Israel, Lebanon
and Turkey
Hall et al (2005), Wilson
et al (1998), Segev (2005)
Hall et al (2005), Dercourt et al (2000)
Eastern
Mediterranean
Wilson et al (1998)
Dercourt et al (2000), Gao et al (2020)
Egypt
Wilson et al (1998)
Macgregor (2012b)
Dolson et al (2014)
Libya/Ionian
margin
Reeh and Aifa (2008),
Wilson et al (1998)
Swezey (2009)
Boote (unpublished), Hallett and Clark-Lowes (2016)
Algeria/Tunisia
Wilson et al (1998)
Swezey (2009)
West Med./ Sicily
Morocco
Charton et al (2021)
Charton et al (2021), Frizon et al (2008, 2009)
Central Atlantic
incl NW African
margin
Mchone (2000)
Charton et al (2021),
Girard et al (2015), Ye
et al (2017) ,
Charton et al (2021), Mourlot et al (2018), Ye et al 2017
Guinea to Benin
margin
Mchone (2000)
Wildman et al (2022),
Ye et al (2017
Ye et al (2017)
Nigeria/Cam.
Burke (2001)
Bonne et al (2014), Saugy and Eyer (2003), Whiteman
(1982)
Equatorial Guinea
to Angola
Davison and Eagles
(1999)
Lavier et al (2001),
Macgregor (2012a),
Borsato et al (2012), Chaboureau et al (2013)
Cuvette Centrale
de Wit et al (2015),
Guillocheau et al
(2015),
Namibia
Peyve (2015)
Baby et al (2018) ,
Stanley et al (2021),
Serica Energy (2014)
South Africa
Markwick et al (2023),
Peyve (2015)
Baby et al (2020,
Moore et al (2009),
Stanley et al (2021)
Bastos et al (2021), Dingle and Newton (1983), Mcmillan
et al (1997)
‘Karoo’ (Permo-
Trias) rifts
Macgregor (2018), Peyve
(2015)
Daly et al (2020),
Macgregor (2018),
Peyve (2015)
Red Sea
Bosworth and Stockli
(2016)
Macgregor (2012)
Gulf of Aden
Bosworth and Stockli
(2016)
Central African
Rift System /
Sahel
Bonne et al (2014), Guiraud et al (2005), Moody (1997)
Ethiopia/Somalia
Purcell (2018), Rooney
(2017)
Macgregor (2012)
Mbede and Dualeh (1997), Boote and Matchette-Downes ,
(2009)
East African Rift
System
Macgregor (2015),
Rooney et al (2017)
Macgregor (2012),
Purcell (2018)
Macgregor (2015)
Tanzania-Kenya
Davison and Steel (2018),
Markwick et al (2021)
Foster and Gleadow
(1996), Noble et al
(1997)
Boote and Matchette-Downes (2009), Mbede and Dualeh
(1997)
Mozambique
Markwick et al (2021),
Peyve (2015)
Boote and Matchette-Downes (2009), Dingle and Newton
(1983), Kamen-Kaye (1983),), Salman and Adbala (1995)
Madagascar
Markwick et al (2021)
Boote and Matchette-Downes (2009), Kamen-Kaye
(1983), Wescott and Diggens (1997, 1998)
Arabian Plate
Barrier et al (2007)
Barrier et al (2007)
Barrier et al (2007)
European Plates
Dercourt et al (2000)
Dercourt et al (2000)
S. American Plate
Mchone (2000)
Macgregor (2012)
Bastos et al (2021), Ford and Golonka (2003), Lovecchio et
al (2020), Milani et al (2007)
N. American Plate
Mchone (2000)
Scotese (2014a-g)
Ford and Golonka (2003)
TABLE 2: Main references (continued)

.
The work has focused on matching conjugate ocean fracture zones (Reeves and De Wit, 2002), time-
calibrated using the limited number of identified pre-83 Ma marine magnetic anomalies. The mid-ocean
ridges themselves have also been modelled quantitatively. Margins for error are reduced overall by
matching not only conjugate pairs of fracture zones at the ridges but also by working across all
conjugate margins of Gondwana simultaneously and including the behaviour of the ridge triple
junctions. Inconsistencies revealed through animating the resulting model are then eliminated iteratively
to produce a credible dynamic model that honours first principles and as much of the oceanic data as
possible. In addition, considerable effort has gone into attempting to match pre-drift lineaments from
Africa to conjugate continents, e.g. the correlation of pre-drift rifts between Africa and Madagascar
(Reeves, 2018). The continental movements have been related to a global reference frame that
matches the record of magmatism on the continents and ocean floor as closely as possible to the
location to plume heads below the southern oceans at the times of eruptions, particularly of large
igneous provinces. A central and long-lived role for the Bouvet plume off southern Africa is recognised
from the outbreak of the ‘Karoo’ large igneous province to the Present Day. The movement of Africa fits,
within limits, to the global reference frames proposed by e.g. Doubrovine et al (2012) that, however,
ignore the Bouvet plume and extends back in time no further than 124 Ma. The reconstruction of each
margin has been validated through an animation that includes surrounding plates. These animations
can be viewed on www.reeves.nl.
Given the scale of the maps compiled in this paper, the two key requirements for this plate model are a)
to establish relative plate positions over time, and b) to assess the timing of breakup (first true oceanic
crust emplacement) to within the time ranges applied to the maps. The uncertainties in continental fits
are believed to be well within these requirements on the Atlantic and on the Indian Ocean margins as
far south as northern Mozambique, regions where they are in general agreement (within 150km) with
the other authors listed on Table 1. The greatest uncertainties in interpreted ages of breakup lie in
magnetically quiet periods such as that in the Cretaceous between 121-84Ma. Increased uncertainties
apply to the original continental fits between southern Africa and the Falklands (see discussions in
Stanca et al, 2023) and in the timing of spreading of the southern parts of the Central Atlantic (Trude et
al, 2023). These are discussed in the text accompanying the appropriate maps.
A further source of uncertainty applies to the presence and form of microplates which may have split
both from Africa and its conjugates, of which a key example is the Mozambique Rise. Here geophysical
evidence for an entirely volcanic origin for the ridge (e.g. Konig and Jokat, 2010) conflicts with the
recovery of some granulites from dredging (Hartnady et al, 1992) and the nature of our fit of Africa to
Antarctica, which suggests some stranded continental fragments must occur within the region. We only
carry one schematic continental fragment on these maps, termed ‘Limpopia’, located within the area of
granulite dredging, but admit that the true picture is likely to be far more complex than shown, with
multiple small continental fragments likely. There may also be continental fragments around the
Comoros Islands, as evidenced by granitic xenoliths in lavas (P. Roach, pers. comm) and in West
Africa, around the Rio Grande Rise. We, together with other authors (e.g. G-Plates), have difficulty in
reconstructing Pangea such that India fits tightly against Oman and northern Somalia. We therefore
speculate on these maps that small platelets existed in that region that have since been absorbed in
mountain chains. As will be discussed, a Permo-Triassic breakup of these fragments would provide a
convenient explanation for the transgressions seen as far south as Madagascar at these times.
The continental fits, as shown on the original reconstructions on www.reeves.nl/gondwana, are based
on the tight fitting of basement shield areas. In the early stage of our mapping, this was found to cause
lineaments and paleoshorelines that now lie on conjugate continents to overlap on the pre-drift
reconstructions. Consequently, the fits were relaxed on the maps in this paper by circa 150km to
prevent such overlaps occurring. This figure is justified by assuming that the current onshore basement
shield areas are separated today by an average of circa 300km of extended continental margin, which
assuming a Beta Factor of 2, reconstructs to 150km original separation. To fully resolve the tightness of
the fits and locate each lineament or shoreline precisely in time, a full structural backstripping exercise
would be required over each margin, using seismic extending between the necking zone and true
oceanic crust. This is beyond the scope of this study, both in terms of available data and time.
For additional convenience, the maps presented hold Africa fixed with equatorial Africa west of the East
African Rift in its present-day position. This facilitates the GIS methodology that is utilised in this study,

allowing for instance faults to be assigned ranges of ages, without the complication of the traces of
these faults shifting to different locations on other maps due to continental drift. This represents a major
time saving at relatively little technical detriment to the validity of the analysis. A minor east-west
contraction of the plate is applied for intervals older than Early Cretaceous to compensate for the prolific
extension that occurred around that time. Orientations quoted in this paper are referred to Present Day
geography unless mentioned otherwise.
2.4 Interpretation Methodology : Intra-Plate Lineaments
An ArcGIS feature class of faults and lineaments across Africa was compiled, based on georeferenced
tectonic elements maps taken from the literature (see asterisked references in second column of Table
1). Lineaments are classified into a few key classes (Figure 1). For rifts, the main syn-rift phase, with
large fault throws, is differentiated from early and post-rift phases in which faults may be moving more
gently. Extension across a rift may not be normal to the direction of the rift bounding faults : such a
situation is referred to as ‘oblique rifting’. ‘Sag’ sequences (the formation of largely unfaulted bowl
shaped depressions centred over rift axes) are sometimes seen in post-rift phases and sometimes
while rifting is still ongoing in more distal areas.
All compressional features from thrusts to gentle inversion anticlines are grouped together in one class.
Severe compression is only seen in the Atlas and Cape Fold Belts and in the offshore Angoche Basin
(Mozambique), associated probably with Davie Ridge transpression (Mahanjane, 2014). Most features
in this category elsewhere are simple inversion structures. The category also includes toe thrusts driven
by gravity systems, which can be identified on the maps as they lie offshore and parallel both shorelines
and proximal extensional faults.
Transforms have sinistral and dextral movements differentiated if that is possible, while a ‘speculative’
class cover cases where such transforms are inferred rather than mapped from geophysical data. Most
such faults in Africa change their sense of movement at least once, as is evidenced by the frequency of
inversion structures. Transpression typically leads to limited geometrical shortening of the lithosphere
from the point of view of plate modelling while transtension can create large spaces, e.g. the early
phases of movement off southernmost Mozambique.
The second stage of the analysis assigns timing to the lineaments. This uses an audit of published
tectonostratigraphic charts accessed from the source data. For rifts, this means recognition of the
periods that faults were active, determined through evidence such as unconformities, stratigraphic and
volcanic age and/or stratigraphic growth into faults. An example of such an analysis is documented in
Macgregor (2015), who discusses seven lines of evidence for the timing of faults in the East African Rift
System. Again, question marks are applied in poorly controlled and disputed cases.
2.5 Basin Terminology
Throughout this paper, we apply terms, shown in italics below, for different types of basin that are
commonly used in the relevant literature, e,g, in the Basin Analysis book of Allen and Allen (2013).
Rifts are commonly assigned the genetic terms ‘passive’ or ‘active’, dependant on whether they are
thought to be derived from the effects of crustal stretching or from underlying mantle/deep lithosphere
effects. The latter includes asthenosphere rise, plumes and density differences (gravitational potential
energy). Frizon et al (2015) provides a useful checklist of evidence for these two classes. ‘Passive rifts’
should lack high rift shoulders, show relatively minor volcanism that largely postdates the main phase of
rifting and are often multi-phase. ‘Active rifts’ typically involve larger uplifts, so should show wide/high
rift shoulders, erosional unconformities marking multiple periods of uplift and a high degree of volcanism
predating the main phase of rifting. Applying the terms has frequently proven difficult, partly as, as in
many African cases, rifts often change their character with time. We thus use these commonly
recognised terms in an unqualified manner only in the abstract and discussion sections of this paper.
For the majority of our discussions, the classification of Merle (2011) is used, as this is based on
tectonic associations that are readily identifiable from our maps and clearly distinguishes observation
from interpretation. This classification assigns terms based on tectonic association before interpreting
an assignment to the genetic passive/active categories (see the combination of the terms in his Table

4). The relevant categories for Africa are ‘plume-related rifts’ (interpreted as ‘active’), ‘mountain-related
rifts’ (interpreted as ’passive’) and ‘transform-related rifts’ (interpreted as ’passive’). Type examples of
the three categories lie respectively in the East African Rift system (Merle, 2011), onshore Tunisian rifts
(Burollet, 1991) and the Central African Rift System (Browne and Fairhead, 1985; Fairhead, 2022).
The terminology for continental margins is well recognised. ‘Rifted margins’ (Sapin et al, 2021) typically
show assemblages of rifts developing prior to continental breakup, and the eventual oceanic ridge
opening semi-parallel to the rift axes. Such margins in Africa typically show a ‘necking zone’ of sharp
continental crust thinning, outboard of which may lie a ‘hyperextended zone’, where Beta factors of up
to 4 may be observed (Brune et al, 2014). Further oceanward, in some cases, a ‘mantle exhumation
zone’ is developed, where the continental crust has been completely removed. ‘True oceanic crust’
beyond this is composed of submarine lavas which have been erupted on oceanic ridges. A synonym to
‘rifted margin’ not used in this paper is ‘magma-poor margin’. The Angola margin (Brune et al, 2014) is
a type example of this category and of the zones described within it.
‘Volcanic rifted margins’ (Sapin et al, 2021) are characterized by thick series of ‘seaward dipping
reflectors’ (SDRs), which when intersected, have been shown to tie to thick series of subaerial volcanic
flows (McDermott et al, 2018). This term is synonymous with the term ‘magma-rich margin’. The
Namibia margin (McDermott et al, 2018) is a type example of this category.
‘Transform margins’ are those where the spreading ridge terminates at a high angle against a
transform fault bounding continental crust (Basile, 2015). These grade to ’oblique margins’ where the
intersection is at an acute angle. The Romanche and St Paul Fracture Zones on the Liberia to Benin
margin have long been regarded as type examples (Basile, 2015).
All these terms for rifts and margins can be regarded as endmembers, with many basins and margins
being transitions or hybrids between these, often evolving into another category with time.
2.6 Interpretation Methodology : Volcanism
Outcropping volcanics polygons and ages are extracted from USGS shape files (Hearn et al, 2001).
These are added to from the references listed in the first column of Table 2. Offshore volcanics over
many regions are taken from Markwick et al (2021, 2023). The only significant subsurface volcanics
shown on the maps are those which correspond to SDRs on volcanic rifted margins. There is no
attempt to try and reconstruct the original extent of onshore volcanics prior to erosion, which in the case
of the Early Jurassic and Early Cretaceous volcanics of southern Africa, could have been considerably
greater than their preserved extent.
2.7 Interpretation Methodology : Palaeotopography
The interpretation of paleotopography decreases in confidence with increased age. For the Neogene
and Oligocene intervals, the topography shown is primarily based on backtracking the origin of existing
topography through time, often by analysing river profiles (e.g. Paul et al, 2014). Marked changes in
topography commencing in the early Oligocene (Burke, 1996, Burke et al, 2003), with associated
drainage reorganisations, represent a limit for this technique. Over the Paleogene and Late Cretaceous
(and occasionally beyond), apatite fission track data (AFTA) are used as an indicator of rapid cooling,
such cooling being presumed to be related to uplift and erosion. The AFTA literature for Africa has been
scanned, with arrows then added to the maps for periods when minor and major uplift is interpreted. In
general, AFTA ages from the topography close to African coasts increase in a clockwise direction,
commencing on the Red Sea margin. This is taken to indicate that the average age of uplift and
topography gets older in the same clockwise manner. Again, this technique often has a lower
stratigraphic limit around the middle of the Cretaceous, as apatite clocks are commonly set at or after
this time, and another step change down in confidence occurs into older maps.
Another indirect method used as far back as the start of the Cretaceous is to predict the topography of
the hinterland of a sediment sink using Present Day drainage system analogues (Somme et al, 2009).
Carbonate deposition is taken to indicate low sediment supply and hinterland topography, while high
clastic sedimentation rates are taken to indicate large drainage catchments accessing large erosion
prone highs at a time of a wet climate. The observation of marine transgressions into the continental

interior is taken to imply topography below 150m, as is seen over much of North Africa in the Late
Cretaceous and Paleogene and in East/Central Africa in the Late Jurassic.
Topography prior to the Cretaceous is speculative, being based largely on the predictive effects of
tectonic events, e.g. an assumption that rifts had high bounding shoulders. All paleotopography shown
can be regarded as relative, with the categories differentiated not implying specific elevation ranges.
2.8 Interpretation Methodology : Shorelines and Dominant Facies
As described in the previous section, relationships with sedimentary rates and types provide a useful
audit of the active topography and therefore of tectonics interpreted at that time.
Only marine sedimentation is shown on these maps to reduce the complexity of the maps. The
interpretations shown are the locations of paleo-shorelines and shelf edges, plus a simple choice
between shelf sedimentation that is dominated by clastics and that dominated by carbonates. Sinks with
particularly high depositional rates (over 80m/Ma fully compacted rate) are highlighted, representing a
simplification of a fuller analysis available on www.africageologicalatlas.com and Macgregor (2012a).
Such calculations are however only possible from the base of the Cretaceous upwards due to poor
stratigraphic control over deep Jurassic sections.
The interpretations shown are compiled from the paleogeographic maps contained within the sources
listed in the third column on Table 2. The shorelines shown represent relative highstands within the
periods concerned. Few of the individual maps in the literature extend beyond national boundaries, so
the result is essentially a patchwork of multiple sources, with interpretation required between these.
Where maps are available only for time intervals slightly different to those chosen here, shorelines are
shifted according to the progradational or retrogradational trends interpreted from local stratigraphic
work, or failing that, from global sea level curves.
2.9 Interpretation and Methodology Case Study : Eastern Mediterranean
It is clearly not possible to discuss every interpretation or uncertainty on the maps in detail. We have
thus chosen to illustrate our methods more fully for one example in the eastern Mediterranean (Figure
2). The interpretation of the timing and nature of the opening between North-east Africa and the
Menderes-Taurides portions of Turkey is perhaps the greatest uncertainty on any of the maps. There
are no discernible magnetic stripes due to the exceptionally thick sedimentary cover. The ages of
interpreted oceanic crust initiation in the literature range from Paleozoic (Granot, 2016) to Cretaceous
(e.g. Dercourt et al, 2000), with two concentrations of interpretations around the Permian (e.g. Stampfli
et al, 2001) and the Late Triassic to Jurassic (e.g. Le Pichon et al, 2019). There is a similar wide range
in interpretations of the orientation of spreading and associated transforms, one author presenting
models of N-S trending transforms off the Levant coast (Schattner and Ben-Avraham, 2007) and others
of E-W transforms off Egypt (e.g. Le Pichon et al, 2019). We need to select one of these multiple
models to illustrate on our maps and petroleum data has been key in making this choice.
The Permian breakup model was reviewed on the data compiled at that level. This model relies largely
on the observation of deep marine strata in basins in Tunisia and Sicily, and an assumption that these
were connected to Neotethys through the region that is now the offshore eastern Mediterranean. This is
not favoured on the basis of evidence provided in the following section of this paper (Section 3.1),
particularly the lack of any evidence for Permian rifting, flood basalts or major subsidence in south-
eastern Mediterranean basins.
Key evidence supporting an Early to Middle Jurassic breakup age was found in recently published and
unpublished petroleum data. This evidence is listed below, locations as labelled on Figure 2:
1) NE-SW rifting is observed of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic age in onshore Israel (Gardosh et
al, 2010).
2) The same trend is observed in Sinai, with rifting oblique to a roughly east-west trending
transform, which must therefore have a dextral movement (Moustafa et al, 2013).
3) Early Jurassic volcanic sequences have been interpreted on the Eratosthenes Ridge,
(Papadimitriou et al, 2018), together with alkaline flood basalts in Israel dated as latest Triassic
(207-203Ma, Segev (2005)).

4) A probable breakup unconformity of around Middle Jurassic age is observed on industry
seismic over the Eratosthenes Ridge, (Papadimitriou et al, 2018). This overlies the Early
Jurassic volcanic sequences.
5) Although it is shown on maps in some industry papers (e.g. Tari et al, 2012), the existence of a
dextral transform of this age parallel to the Egyptian coast has not been illustrated on any
published seismic line. It has now been illustrated by BP in a conference talk on the Atoll Field
(A. Moursy, 2024, pers. comm.)
6) The basins of the Western Desert are frequently described as ‘transtensional’ and commenced
subsidence in Middle Jurassic times. Rifting is postulated to be coeval with eastern
Mediterranean opening (Bosworth and Tari, 2021). An analogue supporting this will be
proposed later in this paper to the Tertiary rifts of the Honduran Borderlands, which are thought
to be coeval with the opening of the Cayman Trough (Sanchez et al, 2016). The structural
styles and geometries of the two settings are similar.
7) A cross-section of wells in northern Cyrenaica was kindly provided to the author by David
Boote, with permission, from a Lynx multiclient study (Lynx GIS, 2010). This illustrates deep
water Middle Jurassic strata unconformably overlying Late Triassic to Hettangian shallow
marine carbonates in the A1-28 well, that being the Libyan data point closest to oceanic crust.
This is interpreted as a breakup unconformity of late Early to early Middle Jurassic age. The
shallow marine nature of the Triassic strata at this data point close to oceanic crust mitigates
against an older breakup age.
8) A verbal paper at a Geological Society North Africa conference on the Gulf of Sirt (Bruno et al,
2024) agrees with a Jurassic breakup age, describing a stress direction of N 15o E at this time.
This implies extension oblique to the interpreted spreading direction of the Ionian Sea. The
interpretation presented from the stress analysis requires the presence of a transform dividing
the Ionian from the Herodotus Ocean. This is added on our maps as a ‘tentative’ transform as
no direct geophysical evidence is known for it.
9) Thick flood basalts have been penetrated in Maltese offshore wells (Reeh and Aifa, 2008),
peaking in their thickness and frequency in the Middle Jurassic. These are therefore generally
younger than those in Israel and the Eratosthenes Ridge, suggesting a propagation of events
from east to west through the Early and Middle Jurassic.
10) A Triassic to Jurassic paleogeographic analysis over Sicily (Di Stefano et al, 2015) indicates a
long-lived NW-SE trending shelf edge at this time, supporting the indicated spreading direction
of the Ionian Sea.
11) The Ligurian ocean is believed to have spread in the Bajocian (Van Hinsbergen et al, 2020).
This would be consistent with the eastwards Early to Middle Jurassic propagational model
suggested under 9) above. The N-S trending Ligurian Ocean must be bounded by a transform
where it meets the African Plate, which Handy et al (2010) interprets as an extension of the
Azores-Gibraltar Fracture Zone. This completes a model of two Jurassic transforms bounding
North Africa, connected through the oblique margin of the Ionian Sea. An analogue for this
model is the Cretaceous Liberia to Benin margin, which is bounded by the St Paul and
Romanche transforms, with the Tano Basin of Ghana forming an extensional salient between
these (Section 3.10).
Of all the multiple models thus reviewed in the literature, the Jurassic E-W transform model of the Le
Pichon paper is most consistent with this new evidence and was thus adopted on the maps with a few
amendments to fit the data collected above. We suggest that rifting in the Levantine Basin eventually
migrated to the Herodotus Basin, leaving the Eratosthenes Plateau as a stranded block : we
demonstrate later that such ‘jumps’ are a common occurrence on African margins.

Figure
1 : Legend applying to Figures 2-21.
Figure 2 : A compilation of Jurassic tectonic lineaments and evidence supporting the model for Early to Middle
Jurassic breakup of the eastern Mediterranean Ocean. Numbers relate to the listing of evidence in the text for a
late Early to early Middle Jurassic opening of the eastern Mediterranean

3. Maps
Each map is discussed here, with a summary of the tectonic highlights of each interval presented on the
figure caption. A legend for all maps is shown as Figure 1.
3.1 Figure 3 : Kungurian (Early Permian) 275±5Ma
Two enigmatic Permian depocentres are observed on the northern part of the African Plate, the Sicani
(SI) Basin of Sicily (SI) and the Djeffara (DJ) Basin of Tunisia/Libya. Both contain deep water facies,
which has led to interpretations that the Permian Neotethys was propagating this far west (e.g. Stampfli
et al, 2001). We however agree with arguments presented by Scotese and Schettino (2017) against a
Neotethys propagation through the eastern Mediterranean, e.g. lack of rifting at this time in that area,
lack of flood basalts or ophiolites. The latest released seismic interpretations over the Djeffara Basin
(Bruna et al, 2023) indicate a narrow elongate depocenter that does not thicken to the north towards
any conceivable ocean. As late Hercynian/Variscan movements are still setting off shear zones into the
African and Iberian continents (Doblas, 1991: Hoepffer et al, 2006), one possibility is that the basin
could be a narrow transtensional feature developed along one of these. The Sicani Basin (Catalano et
al, 1991, 1996 : Di Stefano et al, 2015) presents more of a enigma, as no base is seen to the deepwater
succession. Unlike the Djeffara, where the strata eventually pass upwards into shallow marine
conditions, deep marine conditions continue here until the Miocene. Biota indicate a deepwater
environment and a link to sediments in Crete, Kurdistan and Oman (Catalano et al, 1991). The E-W
trend of the basin (Di Stefano et al, 2015) may suggest a link through surviving parts of PaleoTethys,
possibly through the Lagonegro (LA) Basin (Catalano et al, 1991), which contains some deepwater
Triassic facies, or alternatively through Crete to Neotethys off the Middle East. More work is required to
determine the position of the oceanic connection, though it seems this lay north of, rather than through,
the region of the younger eastern Mediterranean.
In North Africa, most topography is interpreted to be associated with a series of broad folds that run
parallel to the Hercynian belt, these being the sites of later deep erosion evidenced by the Hercynian
subcrop pattern (Boote et al, 1998).
Southern and East African rifts are after Macgregor (2018), who differentiates two main phases of
Permo-Trias rifting in southern Africa. The first of these is initiated in the Stephanian and reaches peak
activity in the Kungurian (Catuneanu et al, 2005). Narrow deep half grabens are developed along the
‘Southern Trans Africa Shear’ (‘STASS’ of Visser and Praekelt, 1998) from the Morondava Basin (MO)
to the Aranos Basin (AB) of Namibia (Orpen et al, 1989; Miller, 2008). Another set of entirely dip slip
rifts, typified by the Rukwa (RU) rift, runs perpendicular to the main trend through Zambia and
Tanzania. This pattern of transform-related (passive) rifts both along and perpendicular to a major
transform constitutes a similar pattern to the association of Cretaceous transform-associated (passive)
rifts with the Central African Shear Zone (Section 3.8 onwards). There is no clear connection to
lineaments in South America but an intersect of the STASS with the Cape Fold Belt is likely (Visser and
Praekelt, 1998), perhaps in the current offshore, suggesting that the transform activity may be driven by
the incipient Patagonian collision.
The model adopted here for the incipient Cape Fold Belt (CFB) is that of Linol and De Wit (2016,
various papers therein), who suggest that there was double subduction of the Agulhas Ocean
(AO) below Patagonia (PA) and southern Africa. A large enclosed brackish sea transgresses into the
developing foreland basin north of the Cape Fold Belt mountains (Bastos et al, 2021), covering the
Parana (PN) and Great Karoo (GK) Basins. Within this restricted basin, anoxia is periodically
developed, leading to the development of the oil shale and fraccing targets of the Irati and Whitehill
Shales. The Great Karoo Basin was clearly underfilled (i.e. subsidence exceeding sedimentation) at this
time (Catuneanu et al, 2005), suggesting that topography in the developing fold belt was still subdued.
The Permian fit of the Falkland Islands (FI) is disputed (see discussions in Stanca et al, 2023). We
favour a pre-drift fit shown here to the south of Natal, mainly based on Late Jurassic facies and tectonic
correlations (Section 3.7). This requires the imposition of a sharp bend in the Cape Fold Belt as it enters
the South Africa offshore, which is supported by the lineament analysis of Paton et al (2023). Some

authors instead favour a Permian position east of Natal (e.g. Stanca et al, 2019, 2023) and invoke a
migration and rotation of the islands in the intervening period from the Permian to the Late Jurassic. As
the cause of such a rotation is unknown and it would not affect the African Plate, we have held the
Falklands in the southern position through the Permian-Jurassic period
Figure 3: Tectonics in the Kungurian (Early Permian) interval, 275±5Ma. The key event at this time is one of the
earliest phases of Permian (‘Karoo’) rifting in southern Africa. Cape Fold Belt movements are still minor. A few
enigmatic deepwater basins form on the northern margin, whose paleogeographic context is still not understood.
Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text

3.2 Figure 4 : Induan-Olenekian (earliest Triassic) 251±5Ma
In North Africa the Djeffara (DJ) Rift is still subsiding (Gabtni et al, 2009), while other seemingly isolated
sets of rifts are forming in the Maragh (MA) Basin and Hameimat (HA) Basins of Libya (Gras and
Thusu,1998). The Palymrides (PA) Basin of Syria (Brew et al, 2001) rifts, with extensions probably
extending into the offshore Levantine (LE) Basin (Gardosh and Druckman, 2006). Local rifting also
occurs in offshore NE Libya and Tunisia as part of a gradual step northwards (and into the current
offshore) of rift activity through the Permo-Trias (Reeh and Reston, 2014). The first of the rifts that
precede Central Atlantic breakup develops within the Argana (AR) Valley of Morocco (Frizon et al,
2008).
A northwards expansion of the Permo-Triassic rifts of eastern Africa occurs around this time, with new
rifts initiated over north-eastern Africa (Macgregor, 2018). The main rift event in the Ogaden (OG) Basin
is, for instance, of Early Triassic (Induan) age, during which a thick deep lacustrine anoxic shale (Bokh
Shale) was deposited (Worku and Astin, 1992), indicating syn-rift conditions. Time equivalents of this
are seen in the Mombasa Basin (MB) and Middle Sakamena Formation of the Morondava (MO) Basin
in Madagascar (Wescott and Diggens, 1998). Madagascan rifts however show more marine influence at
this time than do the African ones, possibly due to a marine inlet pulsating southwards from Neo-
Tethys, perhaps through the Somalian offshore rifts mapped by Davidson et al (2018). The opening of
this inlet to Neo-Tethys may be facilitated by the breakup of plate fragments we speculate lay in the gap
between Oman and India. Our reconstruction otherwise leaves an unrealistic V spaced ocean between
these regions. Their timing of breakup could be speculated to be similar to that of Neotethys off the
Middle East. The Middle Sakamena Formation is the source of the Madagascar tar sands and further
source rock potential may exist over other depressions along this Tethyan seaway.
The last of the collisions that assemble Pangea occurs as the main phase of the Cape Orogeny (Linol
and De Wit, 2016). Distal compression is seen as far north as the Cuvette Centrale (CC: Giresse,
2005). The Great Karoo (GK) foreland basin moves into a filled stage (i.e. sedimentation exceeding
subsidence), characterized now by thick non-marine sediments (Catuneanu et al, 2005).

Figure 4: Tectonics in the Induan-Olenekian (earliest Triassic), 251±5Ma. The key event at this time is the peak of
Cape Fold Belt tectonism. The interval covers one of the final phases of Permo-Triassic (‘Karoo’) rifting in southern
and eastern Africa. This rifting event is more significant in north-eastern Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations
identified in text.

3.3 Figure 5 : Carnian (Late Triassic) 230±5Ma
Neotethys may now be propagating into at least the NE part of the Mediterranean, between Lebanon
and the Taurides block. This is evidenced by the outcropping of Late Triassic oceanic basalts in Cyprus
(Lapierre et al, 2007) and in Turkey (Robertson and Parlak, 2013, papers within). An alternative model
is that oceanic crust could have extended further west to include deep marine facies in Crete and the
Lagonegro and Sicani Basins of Italy, though this would require this to have been consumed. Israel
(e.g. Judea Graben, JG) remains in a syn-rift phase (Gardosh and Druckman, 2006), thus a transform is
speculated to form a limit to the Neotethyan ocean to the north.
There is a large expansion of rifting in the Atlas (AT) rifts and their Newark (NE) rift conjugates (Le Roy
and Pique, 2001: Manspeizer, 1988), In addition, rifting occurs in offshore Sicily (Streppanosa Basin
(ST), Catalano et al, 1996), in the Gulf of Sirt (GOS) and in the offshore Cyrenaica (CY) areas (E.
Gillard, pers comm 2017, PESGB Africa Conference presentation). More gentle rifting, accompanying
sag-like extension, occurs in the Triassic Basin (TR) of Algeria (Boote et al, 1998). The Djeffara (DJ)
Basin of Tunisia/Libya has now filled, with rifting have migrated northwards into the current offshore.
Rifting may thus be occurring over a wide belt from the Levantine Basin (LE) of Israel to Senegal (SE)
at this time. Many authors thus consider this the peak rifting period of North Africa (e.g. Jagger et al,
2018). Such rifting is largely amagmatic so a passive rift mechanism must be sought.
Many of the rifts in southern Africa now seem to be in a phase of fill by fluvial redbeds (Macgregor,
2018), suggesting filled conditions and a gradual end to subsidence. Following a stratigraphic hiatus in
the Ladinian which could mark the final movements on the Cape Fold Belt (CFB), the Great Karoo (GK)
Basin also enters an overfilled phase (Catuneanu et al, 2005).

Figure 5: Tectonics in the Carnian (Late Triassic), 230+-5Ma. Africa plate fixed. The key event at this time is a
widespread Late Triassic rifting event over northern Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.4 Figure 6 : Rhaetian (Triassic)/Hettangian (Jurassic) Boundary 201±5Ma
Major alkaline flood basalts erupt on the margin of the Levantine Basin (LE) (207-203Ma, Segev
(2005)), associated with an unconformity of Norian to Hettangian age (Gardosh et al, 2010, 2011). Early
Jurassic volcanism has also been interpreted on seismic over the Eratosthenes Plateau (EP,
Papadimitriou et al, 2018). Rifting seems to be propagating westwards from Israel through Sinai into
parts of the Western Desert (Moustafa, 2023) with a southern boundary formed by the E-W trending
Sinai Shear Zone (SSZ, Moustafa et al, 2013) : the orientation of the rifts implies dextral movement on
this transform.
Rifting is established over the areas of both the future Central Atlantic and Ligurian (Alpine) oceans
(Handy et al, 2010). This requires initiation of the Azores-Gibraltar Fracture Zone and transform (AGT)
and of a conjectural extension of this into northern Algeria (Handy et al, 2010). This cannot be
evidenced on Present Day geology due to subsequent complex thrust tectonics. The intensity of rifting
has somewhat decreased since the Carnian in the Newark (NE), Nova Scotia (NS), Atlas (AT) and
Streppanosa rifts (ST), though a second milder pulse is proposed in Morocco (Frizon et al,
2008, Escoca et al, 2021). Within tectonically controlled inlets such as the Triassic Basin (TR), now in a
sag phase, and in Moroccan rifts, evaporites are well developed.
A major magmatic event occurs at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, which is defined at the mass
extinction associated with the Central Atlantic Magmatic Plume (CAMP). The distribution of CAMP
volcanics is largely after McHone (2000). On the American side, a distinct magnetic anomaly along the
deepwater margin is tied to the emplacement of widespread SDRs (Davis et al, 2018). However, there
have been no reports of SDRs on the African margin north of Senegal. A similar elongate magnetic
anomaly is seen on the African margin (Van Hinsbergen et al, 2020), but as this is weaker and lies
considerably landward of the eventual oceanic boundary, it does not seem likely that this ties to SDRs.
Kusznir et al (2017), based on potential fields work indicating gradual crustal thinning westwards,
believe the Canaries (CA) area to be a hyperextended rifted margin, with an initial attempt at rifting east
of the islands preceding a ‘jump’ in the rifting axis to a more distant position, where spreading
eventually occurred. More deep seismic studies are required and both margins may turn out to be more
complicated than currently mapped, but at this stage, we follow the otherwise questionable
interpretation of Davis et al (2018) that a volcanic rifted margin on the US side is synchronous with a
largely amagmatic rifted margin on the Moroccan-Mauritania conjugate. Such an interpretation is not
consistent with other conjugate volcanic rifted margins assessed in this paper so further data and
analysis is required. With such different basement types, the thermal histories of the two margins are
likely to differ.
The ‘Karoo’ rifts are now inactive (Macgregor, 2018). Over the Zambian and Tanzanian rifts, an
unconformity is seen between Triassic and Late Cretaceous, capping inversion structures that increase
in intensity to the SW from the Luangwa Basin (LU). These presumably indicate reversal of the earlier
STASS transforms. The lack of any transform displacement on the Pleinsbachian Botswana dyke
swarms (BDS on Figure 7) suggests that this inversion must occur prior to that time and is thus shown
on this map.

Figure 6: Tectonics in the Rhaetian (Triassic)/Hettangian (Jurassic) Boundary, 201±5Ma. The interval ties to the
eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (‘CAMP’) Plume. In NE Africa, rifting is propagating westwards
into the Western Desert of Egypt. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.5 Figure 7 : Pleinsbachian-early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) 185±7Ma
As discussed from the evidence presented in Section 2.9, oceanic crust formation in the Herodotus
(HE) portion of the eastern Mediterranean likely commences in late Early to early Middle Jurassic times.
The model adopted for the opening of the Central Atlantic is that of Labails et al (2010), with first
oceanic crust, of around 190Ma age, emplaced north of the Blake Spur (BS) only. Seaward dipping
reflector (SDR) formation commences south of the Blake Spur (Trude et al, 2023). These SDRs are
now located off Suriname and Guinea. This ocean terminates to the north against the Azores-Gibraltar
Transform (AGT).
A new phase of rifting commences in East Africa over rifts such as the Mandawa (MA) Basin of
Tanzania, dated as between 182-170Ma (Macgregor, 2018). The syn-rift phase could be older offshore
Somalia, where large rifts are interpreted by Davidson et al (2018), preceding the opening of the Somali
(SO) oceanic basin, which could be as early as late Toarcian (Reeves, 2018). This is clearly a
hyperextended rifted margin, based on the seismic interpretations of Stanca et al (2016) and Mortimer
et al (2020). Marine conditions transgressed in the Pleinsbachian as far south as southern Somalia
(Boote and Matchette Downes, 2009), prior to a further transgression in the Toarcian (Macgregor,
2018), which likely reached northern Mozambique. Thick salt, which requires a marine origin, and
usually occurs close to the time of breakup, is known from the Mandawa (MA) Basin of Tanzania and
the Majunga Basin (MJ) of Madagascar, while salt diapirs have been interpreted on seismic over the
offshore Angoche (AN) Basin of Mozambique (Senkans et al, 2019). The East African margin thus
seems to demonstrate a model of southwards propagational events, with the ages of the initiation of
rifting, of the first marine transgression into the developing rifts and of continental breakup all younging
in a sequential order from north to south. Such patterns are likely to have led to the development of
locally anoxic basins with so far unrealised source rock potential.
A major ‘Karoo’ volcanic episode affects southern Africa (mapped after Pevye, 2015), Antarctica and
Tasmania in the earliest Toarcian (circa 179Ma) and is tied to a significant extinction event. The lack of
any subsequent displacement on Botswanan, Angolan and Namibian dykes (BDS) of this age indicates
that there have no transform displacements crossing this area of the continent at any time since. At
177Ma, volcanism began on the Mozambique (MO) margin (Mueller and Jokat, 2019), with the
emplacement of SDRs.
The first AFTA-derived uplift interpretations appear, though are not supported by the expected facies
changes in offshore sinks (e.g. by an input of sands), so are rated as uncertain. For instance, the
Reguibat (REG) massif of NW Africa is proposed by Charton et al (2021) to begin a long slow
topographic rise. AFTA data alone also suggest an initial uplift of the Leo (LEO) massif region (Wildman
et al, 2022).

Figure 7: Tectonics in the Pleinsbachian-early Toarcian (Early Jurassic), 185±7Ma. The wide time interval taken
covers the breakup of the northern portion of the Central Atlantic and the easternmost portion of the eastern
Mediterranean. These oceans initiate a transform phase over the North Africa margin. The interval also covers the.
‘Karoo’ volcanic event in southern Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.6 Figure 8 : Aalenian to Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) 170±5Ma
As discussed in Section 2.9, breakup of the eastern Mediterranean is now well established, according
to our interpretations listed there. At some time, spreading must rotate to a more NW-SE trend and/or
be overwhelmed by Ligurian Ocean spreading in order to move the Menderides-Taurides blocks to their
accepted positions prior to the onset of eastern Mediterranean subduction.
Many authors believe that most of the Western Desert (WD) rifts of Egypt were initiated at this time
(e.g. Moustafa, 2020), though Bosworth and Tari (2021), based on a conflicting biostratigraphic dating
for the Khatatba Formation, do not think widespread rifting occurred there until the Late Jurassic. These
rifts (e.g. the Alamein Basin (AL)) are reported in these papers to have ‘transtensional’ aspects, though
direct seismic evidence is not provided, with the period of extension suggested to tie to the period of
spreading of the eastern Mediterranean (Bosworth and Tari 2021). A SE Asia style model involving
initial transtension and later transpression/inversion may well apply to these basins. Possible analogues
for their development at this time may be the Honduran Borderland rifts which run perpendicular to and
are synchronous with the Eocene-Recent Cayman Trough ocean (Sanchez et al, 2016). Nevertheless,
more local geophysical analyses are required to investigate the hypothesis that these are transform-
related (passive) rifts and confirm the relationship to eastern Mediterranean opening.
The rate of drift is accelerating in the Central Atlantic, but with oceanic crust still only reaching the Blake
Spur (BS) (Teasdale in Casson, 2020; Trude et al (2023). Trude’s maps have areas south of here
(Guinea (GU)/Demerara Plateau (DP) still within a volcanic rifted margin phase (i.e. SDRs).
The Somali Basin is now opening, with oblique spreading extending to Tanzania and perhaps northern
Mozambique (Reeves, 2018). The Davie Transform is yet to form (Phethean et al, 2016). Deepwater
conditions are established between carbonate platforms in Tanzania (TA) and the Madagascar basins
around Bajocian times, which may mark breakup (Macgregor (2018). Source rock developments
analogous to those developed in the Middle East could well be developed between the opposing
carbonate platforms. A volcanic rifted margin is forming over the southern Mozambique margin, which
likely extends as far inland as the volcanics of the Lebombo (LB) monocline (Davison and Steel, 2018).
A model by which the entire southern Mozambique Basin (MB) is underlain by non-radioactive SDR
volcanics and highly extended gabbro-intruded continental crust is supported by the low geothermal
gradients and heat flows measured in wells in the basin (Macgregor, 2020) and is required to prevent
continental overlaps in restorations versus Antarctica (Reeves, 2018). Figuerido et al (2021) interprets
first oceanic crust at 170Ma in the Angoche (AN) Basin and offshore Zambezi (ZA), though this was
abandoned in favour of a more outboard spreading centre 10My later, leaving the Beira High (BH) as a
stranded block (the third time on African margins we have seen this ‘rift jump’ model proposed). Rifting
of the Agulhas Basins in South Africa may be commencing in the deepest and oldest half graben of the
Gamtoos (GA) Basin (Mcmillan et al, 1997). This is likely to be an extension of the East Falklands (EF)
Basin (a.k.a. Falklands Plateau Basin).

Figure 8: Tectonics in the Aalenian to Bathonian (Middle Jurassic), 170±5Ma. The interval covers the split between
of Africa and Madagascar and therefore between West and East Gondwana. Mediterranean-Alpine oceans are
propagating NWwards, detaching Adria and Turkish Plates from Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations identified
in text.

3.7 Figure 9 : Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) 152±5Ma
Tethyan oceans from the Proto-Caribbean to the Middle East are now rapidly spreading, as are various
segments of the Indian Ocean. The North Africa transform margin is now clearly developed, with major
displacements inferred now on the Azores-Gibraltar Fracture Zone and transform (AGFZ, Handy et al,
2010). Possibly in response to these greater displacements to the west, the inferred transform-related
rifts in the Western Desert (WD) continue to propagate in that direction into NE Libya, where they are
rather better documented in the literature. The Jebel El Akhbar (JEB) and Marmarica (MA) Basins are
reported by Martin (2008) to be ‘pull-apart basins’ (taken here to be transform-related (passive) rifts)
controlled by the North Cyrenaica dextral shear zone. Isolated rifting also occurs in Tunisia and
Morocco.
The Central Atlantic ocean now extends to Guyana (Trude et al, 2023) and likely propagates further
around this time into the Proto-Caribbean. A new spreading centre appears also in the Gulf of Mexico
around 165Ma.
NW-SE trending rifts become active in Yemen at this time, though exploration for presumed extensions
of these in Somalia has to date failed to find thick Jurassic sections (Purcell, 2018). Some small rifts in
South Sudan start to form, with similar trends to the Yemen rifts, notably the Blue Nile (BN) Rift
(Bosworth, 1992). A sharp switch to N-S spreading in the Somali Basin, apparent on magnetic stripes,
initiates the Davie Ridge transform and fracture zone (DFZ), which is largely developed within oceanic
crust (Pheathan et al, 2016 ; Reeves, 2018). A transform-related (passive) rift is forming on the Davie
trend off the Angoche Basin of Mozambique, which will later be inverted (Mahanjane, 2014). Oceanic
spreading is now well established off southern Mozambique with, on our model (Reeves, 2023), a N-S
transform extending offshore from the Lebombo (LE) monocline, bringing our hypothetical ‘Limpopia’
microplate southwards. Our model for the Mozambique Rise is that transforms associated with the split
of Antarctica are moving a series of already drastically thinned and isolated fragments of continental
crust southwards from the SDR zone of the Mozambique plains, of which ‘Limpopia’ is representative.
As mentioned in Section 2.3, the existence of some continental crust in the general area of ‘Limpopia’ is
evidenced from dredging samples and from space created in our reconstruction against Antarctica.
Other authors (e.g. Roche et al, 2021, 2023) have interpreted small continental fragments on other
parts of the Mozambique Rise, which would require further transform faults to be transporting them
there at this or later times. Arguments for the Proto-Weddell Sea spreading as early as the Jurassic are
presented in a research note by Reeves (2020).
A correlation of organic marine shales at Kimmeridgian level between DSDPs on the Maurice Ewing
Bank (MEB, Macdonald et al, 2003) to those in the Algoa (AL) and Gamtoos (GA) Basins (Mcmillan et
al, 1997) in our opinion fixes the Late Jurassic relative positions of the African and South American
plates (Falklands Plateau), supporting the reconstruction of Lovecchio et al (2020). There are no
Jurassic marine strata developed in any of the basins north and west of the Falklands so the marine link
that develops periodically in the Agulhas basins must come through the East Falklands (EF) Basin,
a.k.a. Falklands Plateau Basin, consistent with our plate reconstruction. The first marine strata are
encountered in the Gamtoos (GA) Basin in the Kimmeridgian, while they are not seen to the west in the
Bredasdorp (BD) Basin till the Tithonian (Mcmillan et al, 1997). This pattern could be fitted to a model of
early transform movement within the Late Jurassic bringing East Falklands Basin (EF) waters into
juxtaposition with the various Agulhas basins at different times. It may be that it is not the Agulhas Fault
itself that is moving at this time but another to the north which marks a sharp charge in the orientation of
Jurassic rifts (Paton et al, 2023). Total Energies have also presented this as a significant transform fault
in their conference presentations (V. Delhaye-Prat, pers comm). This interpretation would suggest that
the Agulhas Basins, and the N-S trending rifts within what is now the Diaz Ridge (DR), are transform-
related (passive) rifts in common with most other Mesozoic African rifts. Bhattacharya and Duval
(2016) also suggest that early transform movement on the Agulhas Fault (AGF) caused the initiation of
Late Jurassic rifts in the Durban Basin (DU) and it could be that the poorly defined South Mozambique
rifts (SMR, Salman and Abdula, 1995) terminate to the south on an offshore transform. Wrench
movements are also described on the margins of the East Falklands Basin (EF), where on its southern
ends, oceanic crust may be developing (Stanca et al, 2023 ; Eagles and Eisermann, 2020).
There is little evidence, either direct or indirect, for significant topography development in Africa during
the Late Jurassic, other than that interpreted by Charton et al (2021) in NW Africa, which does not tie to
any significant sand input to the offshore and is therefore a doubtful interpretation. The Kimmeridgian is

a period of globally high sea level. A wide carbonate-prone transgression of central East Africa occurs,
encompassing the Blue Nile gorge and the Mekele inlier (ME). Papers in De Wit et al (2015) tentatively
interpret Kimmeridgian shallow marine environments as far inland as the Cuvette Centrale (CC) of the
DR Congo. The widespread nature of such transgressions support a model of generally low topography
over East and Central Africa.
Figure 9: Tectonics in the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) 152±5Ma. Significant events are now occurring around
southern Africa, with movements on transforms bringing marine waters into transform-related passive rifts in South
Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text

3.8 Figure 10 : Late Valanginian to early Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous) 134±5Ma
Fundamental changes in plate motions and stress regimes seem to occur around this time. The whole
of the African plate would appear now to be experiencing NE-SW stretching, as evidenced by the
creation of a series of NW-SE transform-related (passive) rifts, bounded by E-W trending transforms.
Reasons are unknown, but given the extensiveness of these rifts, can be surmised to be related to far-
field crustal stresses. Extension commences in the South Atlantic along this same trend, initiating, albeit
weakly at this time, a counter-rotation of Africa versus South America, compressing the Gulf of Guinea
region and initiating at least parts of the Cretaceous transform system between northern South America
and Central Africa (Matos et al, 2021). Antarctica, the position of which is well constrained at this time
(as it is still joined to other plates), accelerates rapidly southwards, allowing new oceans to segment
East Gondwanaland. Driven by the Bouvet (BO) Plume (Reeves, 2023), rapid acceleration occurs on
the Agulhas Fault, that will from now on control South Atlantic opening and further counter-rotation of
the African and South American plates.
The Western Desert (WD) oblique rift trend continues to propagate eastwards, now into the Hameimat
(HA) Basin (Gras and Thusu, 1998). As in the Jurassic, the northern limit of the African plate remains a
transform/oblique margin, although it is questionable whether the eastern Mediterranean and Ionian
oceans are still spreading. The only evidence for this is that these transform-related (passive) rifts are
still active and clearly require a driving force, which may be most easily explained by continuing
transform movements along the margin.
Clastic sedimentation rates rise substantially on NW African margins north of Senegal. Around 400,000
cubic kilometres of sediment (compacted, authors estimate from published cross-sections) are
deposited between the Berriasian and Barremian in the Aaiun (AA) Delta, representing volumes and
depositional rates comparable to the Cenozoic Nile and Niger systems. Based on the scaling
relationships developed between fans and river catchments at Present Day by Somme et al (2009), a
catchment area of the order of circa 106 km3 is required as well as a wet climate. AFTA data indicate a
wide area of uplift and erosion at this time over the Reguibat (RE : Charton et al, 2021), extending into
the Taoudenni (TA) Basin (Girard, 2015). The sharpness of the increase in sedimentation rates at the
Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, together with the change from carbonate to clastic dominated
sedimentation, would suggest a sharp uplift, contrary to the interpretations of Charton et al (2021), who
suggest a more gradual one commencing in the early Jurassic. The south Moroccan carbonate bank is
killed by this clastic influx, though the bank continues to form on the more sediment starved Senegal
margin.
A wide, partly faulted depression (the ‘Afro-Brazilian depression’, ABD) forms over what is now Gabon
and NE Brazil (Chaboureau et al, 2013, Matos et al, 2021). A fine balance may have existed in these
incipient rifts between sedimentation and subsidence, leading to fill by fluvial clastics. It is notable that
rifting is now more intense over the ABD than it is in the Campos (CA) and Santos (SA) Basins, counter
to the general northwards unzipping trend of South Atlantic basins. The Parana (PA)-Etendeka (ET)
plume is represented by volcanics in SE Brazil, Namibia and Angola and any mild extension at this time
could be absorbed by dyke intrusion. Two further seed points are created for what will later become a
connected dextral transform system crossing Africa (Ye et al, 2017): the Marajo Basin (MA) of Brazil
(Costa et al, 2002) and a series of transforms in NE Brazil (Popoff, 1988; Matos et al, 2021). Rifting
spreads eastwards in the previously formed seed point in South Sudan (Mchargue et al, 1992). Syn-rift
sequences are also reported on the Demerara Plateau (DP) and could be speculatively tied to those in
the Marajo Basin through a data poor area off Guinea (GU, Ye et al, 2017), although it is clear that the
Marajo Basin is controlled by E-W transforms (Costa et al, 2002). It is notable that the rifts forming at
this time are too early to be connected to equatorial Atlantic rifting or spreading, which is the commonly
assumed cause of the CARS system (e.g. Fairhead, 2022). We agree with Matos et al (2021) that the
counter-rotation now commencing between Africa against South America is the control on the seed
points of the system around NE Brazil and opposing parts of Africa.
The southern South Atlantic commences a process of step by step unzipping, with the first segment
created between the Agulhas and Cape (CT) Transforms (Macdonald et al, 2003). A Valanginian
sequence is reported on seismic lines that is confined to this segment (K. Simons, 2021, pers comm,
Geological Society presentation). Rifting proceeds ahead of this as far as the Skeleton Rift (SR) to the
north. South Atlantic rifting is thus propagating both from the north (see above) and from the south
towards a point where the trends will meet in the Barremian around northern Namibia. In the Orange

(OR) Basin, a volcanic rifted margin is starting to form with the eruption of subaerial volcanic flows, now
seen as a thick series of seaward dipping reflectors on seismic. The Falklands Ridge is now moving at
a rate of around 47km/Ma westwards along the Agulhas Fault, driven by the Bouvet Plume (BO), which
is now emplacing oceanic crust east of the Maurice-Ewing Bank.
Figure 10: Tectonics in the late Valanginian to early Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous), 134±5Ma, Africa plate fixed
and is widened slightly for this and previous maps to account for widespread Early Cretaceous NE-SW extension.
The first Atlantic oceanic crust forms off southern Namibia with the Parana-Etendeka volcanics being erupted later
in the interval. Counter-rotation of Africa and South America commences, initiating transform activity around the
Gulf of Guinea. Note the frequency of NW-SE trending rifts, probably transform-related (passive) rifts.
Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

In East Africa, the Davie (DFZ) and associated transforms are now formed and are transporting eastern
Gondwana (Madagascar, India, Antarctica etc.) to the south (Reeves, 2018). The most intense activity
lies on a trend from the Seagap (SG) Fracture Zone of Tanzania through to SW offshore Mozambique,
where numerous inversion structures are developed. The most dramatic feature is a presumed large
inversion or accretionary prism (Mahanjane, 2014) developed off the Angoche Basin (AN) of NW
Mozambique (Roche et al, 2023). The more outboard so-called ‘Davie-Walu’ (DW) trend, extending
from Kenya to southern Tanzania, seems to be a much less dramatic feature, as interpreted by Klimke
and Franke (2016). This is confirmed by a series of structure maps that were briefly issued on a website
to promote a Tanzanian deepwater licence round in 2013. We attribute this to the Davie-Walu trend off
Tanzania likely displacing malleable oceanic crust. We therefore agree with the interpretation by
Pheathan et al (2016) and those of British Gas geologists who have worked the area, that the Seagap
Fault roughly marks the limit of oceanic crust at this time. Further south, we invoke a series of N-S
dextral wrench faults between the Lebombo trend and the Limpopo Fracture Zone (Reeves, 2023).
3.9 Figure 11 : Barremian (Early Cretaceous) 123±2Ma
A reorganisation is thought to occur at this time of the oceans north of Africa. Part of this re-organisation
involves the onset of spreading of the southern portion of the North Atlantic, such that Iberia stops
following North America precisely and the degree of strike-slip on the Azores-Gibraltar transform (AGT)
is reduced. (Handy et al, 2010). Spreading of the Ligurian Ocean is also now thought to end (Handy et
al, 2010). The main transform-related (passive) rifting phase in the Western Desert and Cyrenaica also
terminates which, assuming the proposed analogue to the Honduran Borderlands is correct, could
suggest the termination of spreading of the Ionian and Herodotus (Eastern Mediterranean) oceans. In
Libya, rifting could have spread from the E-W trending Hameimat (HA) Basin to the main NW-SE
trending Sirt (SI) Basin rifts, though there is poor control on this deep section (Hallett and Clark-Lowes,
2016).
Active rifting of the Termit (TM) and the Tenere (TN) Basins of Chad and Niger is reported (Genik,
1991), though data at this stratigraphic level is poor. Rifting spreads and intensifies through the other
rifts of the Central African Rift System (Genik, 1991), including the Muglad (MU) and Melut (ME) rifts,
with parts of the Benue Trough (BE) possibly becoming active around this time, dating again being
unclear. Transform tectonics along two trends from the Marajo (MA) Basin to Chad and from
Borborema (BB) to Sudan also intensifies but is not yet continuous on either of these (Ye et al, 2017).
Much of this transform movement is probably driven by increased extension of the Southern Atlantic
system and the associated anticlockwise rotation of Africa versus South America. Rifting now extends
from northern Namibia (Serica Energy, 2014) through Angola, Gabon and Brazil to meet the Borborema
(BB) transform system at the northern limit of the Tucano (TU) Basin (Matos et al, 2021). Peak rifting of
the Gabon-Angola rift system seems to be achieved in the Barremian (Chaboureau et al, 2013). A
process of plume-related (active) rifting is indicated by the relative ages of volcanic and rifting events,
by the multiple uplift unconformities (Araujo et al, 2023), and by the exhumation of the lower crust and
mantle (Heine, 2013). Oil-prone source rocks are very common in the population of rifts across Africa,
during periods in which subsidence exceeded sedimentation and deep anoxic lakes formed. Further
step-like advance of the southern South Atlantic Ocean occurs northwards from the Cape Transform
(CT) to Walvis Bay (WB) (Lovecchio et al, 2020), with a major volcanic centre developed in northern
Namibia (Serica Energy, 2014). Transform movement on the Agulhas Fault inverts Jurassic rifts on the
Diaz Ridge (DR, Paton et al, 2023).
Spreading of the various segments of the Indian Ocean is now N-S directed, with the Davie (DFZ)
nearing the end of its period of activity (Roche et al, 2023), as indicated by the lack of evidence for the
M0 magnetic stripe (120.4Ma) in the Somali Basin. A dominance of carbonates on the Somali margin
passes southwards into one of clastics, which is likely an indicator of a contrast in hinterland
topography, as a high centred on the Tanzanian Craton starts a slow rise (Foster and Gleadow, 1996).

Figure 11: Tectonics in the Barremian (Early Cretaceous), 123±2Ma. The transform phase in northern Africa ends
at this time, with the bounding Tethyan oceans becoming dormant. Offshore Angola/Gabon and many Central
African rifts are in peak syn-rift conditions. Widespread syn-rift conditions exist across the continent on NW,
following a NNW- SSE trend. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.10 Figure 12 : Aptian (Early Cretaceous) 118±5Ma
In North Africa, the late Aptian informally termed ‘Austrian event’ includes a) a widespread uplift and
unconformity of late Aptian age on which erosion increases towards the active Sirt rift (Boote et al,
2015), b) extensional faulting in Tunisia and offshore Libya and c) sinistral transpressional structuring
along shear zones in eastern Algeria (Boote et al, 1998). The map shows a connection of lineaments,
extending from the developing shear zones of central Africa/NE Brazil (see below) to the Niger rifts and
then through transforms to Tunisia, which can be construed as a segmentation of Africa into two plates
(Guiraud et al, 2005). The trend could extend further through the N-S axis of Tunisia (NS) and
hypothetically to the northern Apulia plate margin, where the first significant ‘Eo-Alpine’ compressions
are occurring (Handy et al, 2010). Bodin et al (2010) splits the ‘Austrian event’ in Libya and Tunisia into
two events in the late Aptian and middle Albian and correlates these to unconformities in the onshore
Sirt (SI) and Gulf of Sirt (GOS) rifts. The intense erosion of the rift shoulders and the development of an
apparent triple junction between the three branches of the Sirt rift system suggests that these were
formed as plume-related (active) rifts, post-dating a large regional swell developed in the Jurassic.
However, a paucity of volcanism may challenge this interpretation. In Egypt and Libya, rifting switches
to a more regionally consistent NW-SE trend (Moustafa, 2020), suggesting that this regional stress field
now overwhelms that associated with eastern Mediterranean opening.
Two continuous shear systems are now developed from the Marajo (MA) Basin to Chad and from
Borborema (BB) to South Sudan (Popoff, 1988; Ye et al, 2017). The former trend now integrates the
youngest segment off Cote D’Ivoire (IV). Around the Gulf of Guinea, wrench activity related to the
counter-rotation of the two plates has shifted northwards from the northern end of the Tucano (TU Basin
to the northern trend through Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire (Matos et al, 2021). Deep transform-related
(passive) rifts developed in this area are likely the sites of the formation of further lacustrine source rock
occurrences : these are known from the Brazilian side but have not been penetrated on the African side
due to lack of deep drilling. Early stage uplift is suggested by AFTA data on the Leo (LEO) Massif
(Wildman et al, 2022), which is likely linked to this transpression.
The Aptian within the Gabon/Angola/Brazil rift system presents unusual sedimentary facies that
represent a response to active rifting associated with continental margin thinning (Chaboureau et al,
2013). Within the early Aptian, rifting continues off Gabon, while off Angola, a series of symmetrical
unfaulted ‘sag’ basins are created in proximal settings, passing into more distinct rifts in Present Day
deepwater areas. The subsidence of the sag basins has been related to migration of the ductile lower
crust towards the continents (Brune et al, 2014, Heine et al, 2013). They are filled with lacustrine
carbonates and organic shales (source rocks) that are thought to have been deposited hundreds of
metres below sea level (Chaboureau et al, 2013). A major peneplanation unconformity at circa 118Ma
in southern Gabon (SG) and the Lower Congo (LC) Basin may, by analogy to continental margins with
improved crustal seismic definition (e.g. Coral Sea unconformity in Papua New Guinea, Shakerley et al,
2019), also be related to flow of the lower crust towards the continent. Following this unconformity,
sedimentation resumes in the early late Aptian of clastics in the north and of carbonates in the south
(shown as underlay on map). The chemistry of the carbonate waters illustrates the development of a
large highly alkaline lake connecting both sides of the Atlantic (Ceraldi and Green, 2016), covering the
Campos (CA), Santos (SA) and Kwanza (KW) Basins. The unusual and consistent chemistry of this
lake in Angolan and Brazilian basins implies that the continents are still connected at this time.
Immediately above the level of the carbonates, the late Aptian salt (purple hatch on map) was deposited
between 116-114Ma (distribution after Borsato, 2012). Recent seismic analysis work (e.g. Araujo et al,
2023) in the Santos (SA) and southern Benguela (BE) Basins concludes that there is a continued
proximal to distal change from sag to rift settings at this time. This trend is even clearer off southern
Gabon, where large faults cut the salt close to the eventual continental margin (R. Moeys, Shell,
PESGB oral conference presentation, 2017). Further north, in northern Gabon (NG)/Brazil, the cross-
sections of Caixeta et al (2014) show the late Aptian salts of Africa and South America to be limited on
their oceanward sides by footwall blocks. Between the disconnected areas of salt development and
oceanic crust, a series of Albian rifts are developed. The implication of all these observations is that first
oceanic crust emplacement over most of the Gabon-northern Namibia segment of the South Atlantic did
not occur until around 113-110 Ma (i.e. earliest Albian (Araujo et al, 2023, Matos et al, 2021). An
exception seems to be a limited zone off the Kwanza (KW) and northern Benguela (BE) Basins, where
salt is reported to onlap oceanic crust (Marton and Pascoe, 2020). Using the same interrogative
methodologies as we did to interrogate the literature as for the eastern Mediterranean, we choose to

follow the maps and interpretations of Araujo et al (2023) for this area, as opposed to several
interpretations, discussed in Araujo et al (2023) of an earlier breakup.
It is notable that the propagational relationships established for East Africa for rifting, marine
transgression and continental breakup, are much less consistent in West Africa. Rifting here clearly
has propagated both from the north and the south. This is speculated to be partly due to the
establishment of a transform-related (passive) rift over the Afro-Brazilian depression (Gabon-northern
Brazil, see Figure 10) before the plume-related (active) rift phase started to form. The Rio Grande (RG)
volcanic ridge seems to have held back marine waters from the south until oceanic breakthrough finally
occurred in the earliest Albian. The pattern of breakup, while broadly propagational from south to north,
also shows irregularities in the trend, such as an earlier development of oceanic crust off the
Kwanza/Benguela Basin.
Spreading is now well established in the southern South Atlantic. However, the Falklands Ridge still
acts as a barrier to the entry of Antarctic Ocean waters. This sets up a period of widespread anoxia and
source rock development (at a minimum of two levels) in this young ocean. Moore et al (2009) interpret
the first phase of uplift of the Southern Africa Plateau, centred on the Cape Fold Belt. As the intensity of
associated erosion in the Agulhas basins increases eastwards, this uplift may be driven by
transpression caused by the Maurice Ewing Bank (MEB) passing on the Agulhas Fault. The first
reservoir sands of the Orange Basin (OR), including those of the recent Venus oil discovery, are input in
the earliest Albian and are probably a response to this uplift (Impact Energy, pers comm). The Orange
Basin discoveries are charged from the Aptian source rock described above, so that both reservoir and
source rock elements of the system can be intimately related to the tectonics developed at this time.
Off SE Africa, spreading centred on the Bouvet triple junction (BO) now joins up with that between India
and Antarctica, associated with a change in direction of Antarctica relative to Africa. The Davie
transform system is now extinct and India and Madagascar commence an initially slow movement
northwards

Figure 12: Tectonics in the Aptian (Early Cretaceous), 118±5Ma. A key event is the ‘Austrian’ event of North Africa,
covering a period of uplift and transform movement. First oceanic crust is established in a limited area off southern
Angola, but most of the Gabon/Angola area does not breakup till the end of the mapped interval. Abbreviations
relate to locations identified in text.

3.11 Figure 13 : Late Albian (end Early Cretaceous) 103±4Ma
Tectonic activity in North Africa is now concentrated along the NW-SE arm of the Sirt (SI) Basin, where
a major unconformity at the top of the late Albian separates non-marine from marine influenced strata,
marking a major subsidence event. Jagger et al (2018) has suggested a reactivation of Ionian (IO) Sea
spreading at this time, which would be a continuation of the trend of Sirt Basin rifting, though this model
is not adopted here.
South Atlantic spreading propagates rapidly northwards following breakup of the Gabon-Angola
segment in earliest Albian, with the North Gabon (NG) – Sergipe Basin (SG) segment opening as a
volcanic rifted margin (Caixeta et al, 2014). By the late Albian, the ocean extends to intersect the E-W
transform trend off Nigeria (Matos et al, 2021). This follows yet another case of a rift ‘jump’ as the
Reconcavo-Tucano (TU) rift arm is abandoned in favour of the Sergipe (SG)-North Gabon (NG) trend.
South America now starts to separate from Africa on fracture zones such as the Romanche and St
Paul. Discontinuous segments of new transform-bounded ocean appear off Ghana by 105Ma. These do
not join up into a continuous ocean for another 10 My (Antobreh et al, 2009). The potential for thick
source rocks in the isolated deeps that existed in this period is clear. Areas between the transforms act
as transfer zones during the period, essentially behaving as hyperextended rifted margins. The final
continental separation is marked by gravitational collapses and major erosional unconformities. In the
south, the final contact between African Plate and the Maurice Ewing Bank (MEB) also occurs around
this time. Consequently, from early Cenomanian times onwards (circa 95 Ma), a freely circulating
Atlantic Ocean is formed, allowing features such as contourite currents and mounds to form (e.g.
Mourlot et al, 2018). This is frequently seen as a change in seismic reflection character from banded
upwards into more chaotic seismic facies (N. Hodgson, pers comm). This would be expected to cause
an upwards improvement in deepwater sand reservoir quality and it can be noted that more reservoir
quality issues have been reported from Albian reservoirs, e.g. in Namibia, than in Late Cretaceous
ones.
A sharp change occurs on the Senegal/Guinea (SE) margin from carbonates upwards into clastics in
the early Albian (Davison, 2005). This facies change is notably younger than in Morocco, this difference
being related to differing ages of hinterland uplift in the two regions. New drainage systems seem to be
sourced from the uplifted Leo Massif (LEO, Wildman et al, 2022), where a watershed close to that at
Present Day is evidenced by mineralogical contrasts between rivers draining north and south (Ye, pers
comm. PESGB presentation, 2021). The massif is speculated to have been formed by transpression
related to the anticlockwise rotation of Africa versus South America.
Most Central African rifts are, perhaps puzzlingly given the lack of oceanic transform activity at this
time, in a post-rift phase at this time, an exception being major rifting in Niger, which covers the Tenere
(TN) as well as the Termit (TM) Basins (Ahmed et al, 2020).

Figure 13: Tectonics in the Late Albian (end Early Cretaceous), 103±4Ma. The key event at this time is the final
separation of the African and South American plates along transforms, both in the equatorial Atlantic and on the
Agulhas Fault. Major rifting phase in Libya and Niger. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.12 Figure 14 : Santonian (Late Cretaceous) 86±8Ma
This is a period of plate reorganisations on a global scale. The changes that occur around this time
include rapid closure of Africa against the Pontides and Asia, the eruption of the Marion hotspot at
around 89Ma, sending India rapidly northwards, a change in direction of North America with respect to
the mantle and a rotation of the growth of the Central Atlantic from NW-SE towards E-W. These effects
may impose transpression on Africa from a number of directions, perhaps at slightly different times. The
large scale plate model is captured by Guiraud and Bosworth’s (1997) illustration of the relative motions
of Africa and surrounding plates on their Figure 30. This shows Africa, Arabia and India moving
SEwards (eastwards on Present Day geography) up until last the magnetic stripe before the Cretaceous
quiet period at 121Ma, then rapidly NEwards (northwards on Present Day geography) from the first
magnetic stripe after the quiet period at 84Ma. This effects of this switch in direction of the African Plate
are seen as a rotation of paleolatitude lines on our maps, where Africa is kept fixed. The lack of any
intervening stripes in the Cretaceous Quiet Period mean that the timing of this rotation cannot be
interpreted from this technique. Tethys from 121Ma onwards closes in a vice-like fashion centred on
Iberia, with rapid closure of the Izmir-Ankara Ocean (IZ) and associated ophiolite (Oph) obduction at
75Ma (Menant et al, 2016). It also commences a period of anticlockwise rotation of Africa versus Iberia
and other European plates, initiating dextral wrench movements across North Africa. Other continents,
e.g. Europe, are also affected by inversions of this age.
The most significant of these tectonic events in Africa is a compressive and inversion event dated as
Santonian, the strongest of a series of Cretaceous ‘jolts’ imposed on Africa that generally increase in
intensity towards the Anatolian margin. Inversions are most frequently observed in NE Africa,
particularly in Cyrenaica (CY), in the Western Desert (WD, Bosworth and Tari 2020), and in Israel and
Syria (‘Syrian Arc I’, Shabar, 1994). Dextral movement is recorded on the Sinai Wrench (SW) System
(Moustafa et al, 2013). In the Gabes (GA) and Sabratah (SA) Basins, the event interrupts a rift phase,
with a major inversion structure developed under Djerba Island (DI). There are limited reports of dextral
fault movements and inversions on the Hameimat arm (HA, Gras and Thusu, 1998) of the Sirt Basin,
which can be speculated to be an extension of the Alamein (AL) inversion trend in Egypt. The continued
extension in the NW-SE trending arm (Ajdabiya Trough, AJ) of the Sirt Basin (Abdunaser and
McCaffrey, 2014, Abadi et al, 2008), well after the plume-related (active) rift phase seems to have
ended, could be related to movements on transforms along the NW African coast and from Hameimat
into Egypt, similar to the model originally proposed by Antekell (1996). This model would make the
Ajdabiya Trough a transform-related ‘passive rift’ at this time. The event, by comparison, is weak and
localised in the Atlas (AT) mountains (Frizon et al, 2008).
Major inversion is seen at this time in E-W trending basins of the Central African Rift System (Genik,
1991) and along the Romanche transform (Davison et al, 2016). The Agadez Line in Niger is also
reported to be active (Genik, 1991). It is not easy to link events in this region to the transpression within
NE Africa, though a link through an active Trans-African Lineament (TAL) is possible. Perhaps more
likely, this inversion trend is related to a change in the relative spreading rates and orientations of
different portions of the Atlantic, part of the general plate reorganisation associated with the event. Due
to rapid ongoing fault subsidence on NW-SE trending rifts, deep marine strata are developed in the
interior of Africa in the Termit (TM) Basin (Ahmed et al, 2023), with associated source rocks. Inversion
in the Benue (BE) Trough blocks the earlier connection between the Tethyan and South Atlantic
oceans (Bonne, 2014).
Late Cretaceous inversion tectonics extend further south into offshore East Africa, though the precise
dating of events is poor. The consensus seems to be that activity here may commence before the
Santonian, around Turonian times. Inversion effects extend through the Mandera Lugh (ML) Basin of
Kenya (Bosworth, 1992). Some anticlines of around this age have been informally reported in industry
presentations over the Kenyan and Tanzanian offshore (Macgregor, 2018 and references therein),
while Klimke and Franke (2016) date movements on the Walu Ridge (WR) offshore Kenya as around
Turonian in age. It is likely that the Seagap Fracture Zone (SG) is reversed at or around this time:
effects are seen as a sinistral offset of older deepwater channels on 3D seismic (Iacopini et al, 2022).
This work dates the change to sinistral movement at 94-72Ma, while De Franca (2012) places it at
around Turonian times. We speculate that these East African events could be related to the onset of
significant sinistral movement on the Proto-Owen Fracture Zone (POFZ) as India commences its rapid
NEwards migration, driven by the eruption of the Turonian Marion Plume, centred on Madagascar.
AFTA data and increasing sedimentation rates also indicate the uplift of a large area of Kenya and

Tanzania (TC) (Noble, 1997), including the deeply eroded rift shoulders of the active Anza Rift
(AN, Morley et al, 1999a). Unpublished Zircon Fission Track Data from Tanzanian sediments (Geotrack
pers comm, PESGB presentations) indicate that a high developed over the Tanzanian Shield likely
formed the African watershed.
The topographic model for the Southern Africa Plateau (SAP) on the maps from now onwards will follow
the ‘Hybrid Late’ model of Stanley et al (2021) who summarise the evidence for (and against) Late
Cretaceous and Neogene uplift phases. It is accepted by all authors that a major expansion of the
South African plateau occurs between 93-66Ma (e.g. Baby et al, 2018). Effects are also seen on AFTA
profiles as far into the interior as Zambia (Daly et al, 2020). The broad nature of the uplift and the
association with alkaline magmatism and kimberlites at this time seemingly point to a mantle origin for
the uplift, possibly associated with a Present Day S wave velocity in the lower mantle. The uplift and
increasingly wet climate cause an increase in clastic sedimentation rate and progradation in various
associated sinks, including the Orange (OR) and Zambezi (ZA) deltas.
Figure 14: Tectonics in the Santonian (Late Cretaceous), 86±8Ma. A rapid change in of movement of African plate
relative to western Tethyan plates causes closure of the Izmir-Ankara Ocean, ophiolite obduction in that area and
an inversion event in many interior and some African offshore basins. Effects in offshore Ghana and Kenya may
have other causes of slightly different ages. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.12 Figure 15 : Maastrichtian to Danian (K-T Boundary) 66+-4Ma
There is a return to relative tectonic quiescence from the Early Campanian onwards. Differing authors
disagree whether the Sirt (SI) Arm (Ajdabiya Trough) is still in a syn-rift phase or has entered the post-
rift (Abdunaser and Mcafferty, 2014), but the stretching factor has certainly decreased since the
Santonian (Abadi et al, 2008). A second phase of inversion affects the Western Desert (WD) basins and
Cyrenaica (Martin et al, 2008), and is probably associated with the final collision of the Pontides and
Taurides Plates at the Izmir-Ankara Suture. The Sinai Wrench (SW) system is also active (Moustafa et
al, 2013). These events can be viewed as a milder and less extensive version of the Santonian event.
The E-W trending transtensional basins along the Central African lineament have become inactive
(Genik, 1991), while regional uplift and erosion affect the Tenere (TN) and Termit (TM) Basins of Niger
from the Maastrichtian onwards (Ahmed et al, 2020), terminating the marine inlet there. A similar
decrease in the intensity of rifting is observed in the Sudan Basins (Mchargue et al, 1992), though the
Anza (AN) Basin is at peak rifting (Morley et al, 1999), illustrating a lack of correlation of tectonic events
between these two sets of basins. Although other authors have connected the Muglad (MU) and Anza
(AN) Basins by a wrench system running under the East African Rift, Macgregor (2018) suggests
different causes for the two. He interprets the Muglad to be a transform-related passive rift, and the
Anza to be a plume-related active rift, as suggested by geochemical evidence for very high rift
shoulders, connected to the Tanzanian Craton uplift (TC). However, neither set of rifts show significant
igneous activity. Wouters et al (2021) have modelled stress patterns at 75Ma, and their modelling
shows a good relationship between known plate motions and the orientation of the interior African rifts
mapped on this and the previous map.
The KT boundary coincides with the Deccan Plume basalts of India, which also cover the Seychelles
microcontinent.
The South African plateau (SAP) has been uplifted between 93-66Ma (Baby et al, 2018) so topography
has expanded considerably since the Santonian. A sharp reduction occurs in the Danian in
sedimentation rates in all surrounding sinks (Macgregor, 2012). A number of ideas can be considered to
explain such a sharp change : the most obvious is a sharp drying of the climate in that region, which
essentially freezes the topography established at that time. Another possible explanation may be that
erosion at that time reached the Karoo volcanic cap, which is known to be very resistant to erosion.

Figure 15: Tectonics in the Maastrichtian to Danian (K-T Boundary), 66±4Ma. A tectonically quiescent period
follows the Santonian event which is interrupted by another ‘jolt’ in NE Africa, likely due to the collision of Turkish
platelets. There is a return to quiescence thereafter. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.14 Figure 16 : Ypresian (earliest Eocene) 50±4Ma.
Paleocene to mid- Eocene times represent a relatively stable and quiescent period in terms of tectonics,
erosion, sedimentation and climate. Africa now is bounded by passive margins on all areas except
North Africa. This map is representative not only of this interval but also the previous 10Ma.
Africa is now closing or has closed on various European platelets, but the continued convergence
seems to cause only localised tectonic activity on the African plate. Significant post-rift subsidence
characterises many of the Sirt (SI) rifts (Abdunaser and Mcafferty, 2015), though fault movements may
still occur over the offshore Gulf of Sirt (GOS, Fiduk, 2009). A further inversion phase occurs in
Cyrenaica, though only of the Jebel El Akhbar (JEA) rift (Martin, 2008). North Africa appears to have
been topographically low, as evidenced by the dominance of carbonates, which indicate clear clastic
free water, and the landward extent of marine transgressions, penetrating as far as the Iullemeden (IU)
Basin (Moody, 1997).
The NW-SE trending Central African rifts (TM, TN, ME, MU) enter another syn-rift phase (Genik, 1991),
suggesting that the central African transform systems are once again reactivated, with the probable
driving mechanism now Atlantic fracture systems. The Anza rift of Kenya (AN) also remains in a syn-rift
phase, following a regional uplift of northern Kenya in the Latest Cretaceous to Paleocene (Morley et al,
1999).
The widespread nature of bauxites (Burke and Gunnell, 2008) over much of Africa and South America
suggest very slow erosion over the Paleocene to Eocene, leading to the development of bevelled
(though not necessarily low) surfaces, often grouped under the term ‘African Surface’. These are taken
as indicators of an expanded zone of a warm humid ‘drizzly’ climate, covering most of the plate, leading
to low erosion rates. Sedimentation rates are consequently low on the margins of the continent
(Macgregor, 2012a), with the notable exception of the Niger Delta (ND), which is thought to have been
initiated in the Paleocene (Bonne, 2014). A climatic explanation for the low Paleogene sedimentation
rates in sinks surrounding the South African Plateau is preferred here to a model invoking removal by
erosion of the Late Cretaceous topography.

Figure 16: Tectonics in the Ypresian (earliest Eocene), 50±4Ma. Africa plate fixed. This interval is representative of
a wide period of relative quiescence from the Danian to Priabonian. Significant extension however continues in
NW-SE trending rifts within Central Africa. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.15 Figure 17 : Priabonian (Late Eocene) 35±4Ma .
The previously quiescent tectonics represented by Figure 16 are broken by the first of two periods of
compression in the Atlas (AT, Frizon et al, 2011), dated as Middle to Late Eocene. This is informally
termed the ‘Atlassic event’ and can be tied to the Iberian plate collision with Europe. Relative
movements between Africa and Europe are now greatly diminished due to continental plate contact
having now been established in the NW. From now on, ‘jolts’ to the African Plate will come from both
the NE and NW.
The degree of compression at this time seems to have been greater in Morocco than in Tunisia (Said et
al, 2011). The first of several Cenozoic dextral transpressional events are described along the Sabratah
Fault (SA, Reeh and Reston, 2014, Boote et al, 2015). Carbonate, occasionally evaporite, facies
continue to dominate over North African margins, indicative of a continuing lack of topography and
suggesting that the topography developed with the ‘Atlassic’ event was limited. Molassic deposits in
Morocco are absent in the Eocene and less well developed or extensive in the Oligocene than they are
in the Pliocene (Frizon et al, 2011): this suggests the phases of deformation at this time were less
intense than in younger intervals. The Western Desert of Egypt (WD) suffers another inversion event
(Bosworth and Tari, 2021).
Activity continues in the NW-SE trending members of the Central African Rift System, with continued
extension of the Sudan rifts, contemporaneous with inversion in the Doba (DO) Basin. The Melut (ME)
rift appears more active than the Muglad (MU), with faulting now rotating from a previous NW-SE trend
to NNW-SSE (McHargue et al, 1992). A similar change in fault orientation is reported from the Tenere
(TN) Basin of Niger (Ahmed et al, 2024). This period therefore seems to mark a transition in regional
stress direction.
The first Ethiopian volcanics erupt between 45-34Ma (Rooney, 2017). Some small rifts in NW Kenya
(Wescott et al 1999) and the Broadly Rifted Zone (BRZ) of Ethiopia may start to gently subside at this
time, which could be considered the first ‘EARS’ Rifts, though dating is uncertain (Macgregor, 2015).
The earliest Tertiary alkaline volcanics over North African swells are recorded on the Ahaggar (AH)
Massif (Swezey, 2009). These effects suggest the start of a period of a dynamic mantle below northern
and eastern Africa.
Sinistral strike slip movement recommences on the Seagap Fracture Zone (SG) offshore Tanzania
(Iacopini et al, 2022) and possibly also, by inference, on the Davie Fracture Zone (DFZ). De Franca
(2012) recognises this as the most significant period of sinistral movement that occurred since reversal
in the Late Cretaceous. Inversion occurs in the Anza (AN) Basin (Morley et al, 1999a), which may be
linked. A wider regional influence may result from a reorganisation of the mid-oceanic ridge in the Indian
Ocean around 43Ma.
The Niger (ND) remains the dominant depocenter in terms of sedimentary rate and volumes
(Macgregor, 2012a), characterised by a thick shale prone sedimentary pile, suggesting a very wide
catchment (see paleodrainage maps on www.africageologicalatlas.com).

Figure 17: Tectonics in the Priabonian (Late Eocene) 35±4Ma Africa plate fixed. The quiescent period ends, with
the first, albeit mild, compressions in Atlas as well as further inversion in NE Africa. Onset of Ethiopian volcanism.
Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.16 Figure 18 : Rupelian (Early Oligocene ) 30±5Ma
Compressional activity continues in Iberia and on the southern margin of the European plate but does
not transmit into Africa. The interval lies at the end of the ‘Atlassic’ phase (AT) of Frizon et al (2011),
marked by the deposition of conglomerates in the foreland. A backarc basin has now formed (at 32Ma)
between Iberia and Alkapeca (Carminati et al, 2010), which will eventually spread to create the Western
Mediterranean Ocean. The only member of the Sirt rift population still active is the Hon Graben
(HON, Abunaser and McAfferty, 2015).
Central African Rift System extensional movements now seem to be confined to the Sudanese and
Niger rifts. Rifting trends continue to migrate towards a more N-S trend, with the Melut Basin (ME) more
active than the Muglad (MU) Basin (Mchargue et al, 1992). A transform, referred to in the Niger
literature as the ‘Agadez Line’, forms the sharp boundary between the Tenere (TN) rift, which is highly
inverted at 25Ma (Liu et al, 2017) and the Termit (TM) Basin, which shows only very localised inversion
(Ahmed et al, 2020). Guiraud et al (1995) interprets this transform, also active in Niger in the Santonian
(Genik, 1991), to periodically extend across Africa, including the Guinea lineaments of southern Egypt
in the east and to Senegal in the west.
The first clear biostratigraphic dates are seen in the South Lokichar (SL) Basin, which forms the first
significant rift of the East African Rift System (Macgregor, 2015 and references therein: Purcell, 2018).
This is assessed to be the earliest rift within a first cycle of rifting confined to Kenya and southern
Ethiopia. Its isolated nature implies that the petroleum systems model in this oil bearing basin cannot be
extended to the generally younger rifts that surround it. A very mild rifting and filling episode does
however occur in the multi-phase Rukwa (RU) Basin (Morley et al, 1999b).
.
Rifting starts in the Gulf of Aden (GoA) at 31Ma, initially on NNW-SSE trends (Purcell, 2018) and in the
southernmost Red Sea a few million years later, stalling offshore Eritrea (Bosworth and Stockli, 2016).
The topography of Africa starts to undergo changes, as the ‘basin and swell’ topography of Africa
develops further (e.g. Burke et al, 2003). Based on the dating of associated volcanism, the swells
forming or expanding at this time include the Ahaggar (AH, Swezey,2009), the Afar Plume (AF, Sengor,
2001) and a curving axis through the northern part of the South African Plateau (SAP, Moore et al,
2009, Daly et al, 2020). The latter uplift leads to rapid rises in sedimentation rate and the input of
reservoir sands to the Congo and Rovuma sinks. The Ethiopian traps (ET) erupt on the Afar Plume from
30-31Ma (Rooney, 2017). Many offshore basins show major erosive unconformities at varying levels in
the Oligocene, indicating relative uplift of the basin margins (e.g. Angola, Macgregor 2012a). Volcanism
in the Cameroon Line (CL) starts to migrate offshore (Burke, 2001).

Figure 18: Tectonics in the Rupelian (early Oligocene ) 30±5Ma. Africa plate fixed. The key event at this time is a
re-organisation of topography as the first significant ‘basins’ and ‘swells’ start to form. This is also around time of
onset of the first significant N-S trending East African (plume-related active) rifts. Eruption of the Afar Plume
volcanics precedes much of this active rifting phase. The map in the Niger area shows a localised (~25Ma)
transform and inversion event. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.

3.17 Figure 19 : Late Burdigalian to Langhian (latest Early to Middle Miocene) 15±3Ma
The Alkapeca set of plates detach from the Iberian Plate around 21Ma (Carminati et al, 2012). Over a
period of only around 3Ma, this new western Mediterranean ocean (WMED) spreads, with the Kabylies
Plate (KA) then colliding with Africa to create the Tellian (TE) structural event and nappe. Meanwhile,
the Alboran (AL) Plate is expelled westwards between Iberia and Africa, initiating the Rif (RI) mountain
chain and causing a large gravitational collapse in the foreland to this, the Rharb Basin (RH). These
deformations do not seem to significantly extend in Algeria beyond the Tellian thrust front and therefore
do not affect the Saharan Atlas (AT, Frizon et al, 2011).
Subduction of the eastern Mediterranean commenced at around 20Ma (Menant et al, 2016). An
associated phase of folding and transform activity occurs in the Levantine Basin (LE), transmitted along
transforms parallel to the Lebanon margin (Papadimitriou et al, 2018), forming a set of anticlinal traps.
These are filled with biogenic gas (Mauraud et al, 2020), which is likely generated shortly after reservoir
and trap formation, the petroleum system here being facilitated by low heat flows and geothermal
gradients. These are partly a consequence of the age of the basin, extension having occurred in the
Triassic to Early Jurassic (Macgregor, 2020) and partly that of the thick overlying salt. It follows from
this that this analogue cannot be applied to much younger, and likely hotter, Western Mediterranean
basins.
Oceanic crust is now being established at the easternmost limit of the Gulf of Aden (GoA, Purcell, 2018)
and will propagate westwards through the Middle to Late Miocene. The propagating trend of rifting
ahead of this in the Red Sea (RS) has advanced substantially northwards, with a peak of rift shoulder
uplift around the Red Sea around 20Ma and then reaching the Gulf of Suez at 24Ma (Bosworth, 2015).
At 16Ma, possibly slightly earlier in the Gulf of Aqaba (GAQ, Nuriel et al, 2017), the Dead Sea
Transform is created, marking the end of syn-rift conditions in the Gulf of Suez (GoS).
This period marks the end of the first phase of EARS rifting, which is confined to southern Ethiopia and
northern Kenya, and the start of a second more extensive phase (Macgregor, 2015: Purcell, 2018).
Rifting in the South Lokichar (SL) area migrated eastwards to Lake Turkana (TU), forming an analogy
for the ‘rift jump’ hypotheses proposed earlier on many African continental margins. In addition to a
spread of rifting southwards into the Gregory (GR) area of Kenya, the Aswa (AS) transform is created
and rifting commences in the northernmost rifts of the Western Branch. The first rift fill of the Albertine
(AL) Rift of Uganda was deposited at around 17Ma. Volcanism continues in Ethiopia, now becoming
more areally limited and shield like and starts to expand southwards into Kenya, with the extensive
Kenya phonolites erupted at 13.5-11.5 Ma (Macgregor, 2015) and the Kenya Dome now growing. The
association with volcanism and the high rift shoulders both suggest plume-related (active) rift
conditions.
In West Africa, Cameroon Line (CL) volcanism is now established on oceanic crust (Burke, 2001)
The African basin and swell systems are now becoming more pronounced, particularly in NE Africa,
where the initiation of additional swells is suggested by volcanic ages (Swezey, 2009) and by increasing
sedimentation rates in the Nile depocenter (Macgregor, 2012b). The rising Red Sea rift shoulders also
supply significant sediment to the Nile system. Miocene uplift is interpreted paralleling the West African
margin from Equatorial Guinea southwards (Lavier et al, 2001; Macgregor 2012a).

Figure 19: Tectonics in the Late Burdigalian to Langhian (latest Early to Middle Miocene), 15±3Ma. Key events are
plate collisions on the northern margin, particularly that of the Kabylies block with Africa (Tellian event), plus a
collision of Turkish blocks with Arabia, giving rise to inversions in the Levantine Basin. The eastern Mediterranean
starts to subduct. The eastern Gulf of Aden is opening and the Dead Sea transform is created, separating the
Arabian Plate. Abbreviations relate to locations identified in text.
.

3.18 Figure 20 : Late Messinian to Zanclean (early Pliocene) 5±2Ma
The main phase of compressional tectonics in the Maghreb and Atlas (AT) likely commences in the
Tortonian and peaks in the Pliocene (Roure et al, 2012, Said et al, 2011, Frizon et al, 2008). The event
is accompanied by the creation of an accretionary prism along the southern edge of the Algerian (AO)
ocean (Strzwezynski et al, 2021). A new northern boundary to the African plate is created through the
island of Sicily as the Tyrrhenian Sea (TY) opens and Calabria moves eastwards on a transform
(Carminati et al, 2012). Maltese rifts (MA) form in the foreland to the Sicily Fold Belt and can be
considered, together with contemporaneous NW-SE trending Tunisian rifts, as mountain-related
(passive) rifts under the Merle (2011) classification. Folding, often associated with wrench movements,
affects the Nile Delta. Salt is deposited in up to three phases over the latest Tortonian and Messinian
across deep parts of the Mediterranean (purple hatches).
Spreading commences in the southern part of the Red Sea (RS), though the northern part is thought to
remain in a magma-poor hyperextended state (Bosworth, 2015; Stockli and Bosworth, 2018). EARS
rifting, particularly of the Western Branch, has now propagated considerably southwards. All rift basins
between the Albertine Basin (AL) and Lake Malawi (LM) are now active, the latter forming at circa. 7Ma.
(Macgregor, 2015). A northwards propagation is also interpreted in Ethiopia, to complete a continuous
rift system through the Eastern Branch (Purcell, 2018). A new offshore branch is also created in the
Late Miocene, typified by the Kerimbas (KE) and Lacerda (LA) Basins offshore Mozambique (Franke et
al, 2015).
Uplift occurs over large parts of Central and SouthAfrica from 11-3Ma (Guillocheau, et al, 2015). As
previously discussed, we show the ‘Hybrid Late’ modelled case for the topography of the South African
Plateau (SAP). This is favoured by the immature nature of the drainage in the region (Roberts and
White, 2010) and by significant sediment volumes off the wetter eastern coast (Baby et al, 2019).

Figure 20: Tectonics in the Late Messinian to Zanclean (Early Pliocene) 5±2Ma. Africa plate fixed. The southern
portion of the Red Sea opens. The Pliocene represents a peak of activity over much of the EARS, which has now
significantly expanded, propagating southwards. The peak of compression occurs in the Atlas.

3.19 Figure 21 : Holocene
Active faults on this map are mapped from earthquakes. The main source used is Meghraoui (2016).
The map shows active volcanoes as purple triangles, those with mild activity in pink and recently extinct
ones in orange.
Evolution of the African plate continues, with collision between Cyprus and the Eratosthenes Plateau
(EP) having now occurred, and the remaining sections of the eastern Mediterranean subducting rapidly.
A new subduction zone may now be in the process of being established below northern Algeria (AL),
evidenced by earthquake epicentre depths and the fault orientations these infer (Strzwezynski et al,
2021).
Most existing EARS rifts remain in syn-rift conditions, exceptions being the now extinct Kenyan rifts
formed in the first EARS phase in the Paleogene. The system is still expanding, with a new SW trending
branch now established through Kariba (KA) to the Etosha (ET) Basin, sometimes exploiting earlier
Permian rifts, while other splays to the SW initiate basins under Lakes Mweru (LMW) and Upemba (LU)
(Macgregor, 2015). Daly proposes that the ‘Somali Plate’ and the ‘San’ Plate, (containing South Africa)
are in the process of rifting off the African (Nubian) Plate. Whether the EARS will expand into an ocean
remains to be seen, but it is apparent that parts of East Africa are now moving separately, particularly
the Somali Plate. Daly (2020) also suggest that the San Plate covering southernmost Africa, is also
starting to split from Africa,
Most surrounding oceans are spreading in parallel with the Africa plate, which would therefore be
expected to be under compression : this is clearly not the case, supporting the notion that there are
other active forces below the plate itself controlling the onshore EARS and the basin and swell
topography (see following discussion section). Africa, particularly southern Africa, thus now contains the
largest regions of high topography in the world that are not associated with plate boundaries, volcanism
or continental collision. Some other regions are still actively uplifting, e.g. the margins of the Kwanza
(KW) Basin (Lavier et al, 2001), testified by a lack of navigable rivers, particularly in West Africa

Figure 21: Tectonics in the Holocene 0Ma.The area of EARS rifting expands further, particularly along a
reactivation of the ‘STASS’ trend of southern Africa. The African Plate may be starting to segment. Subduction may
be commencing of the Western Mediterranean while collision with Anatolia is ongoing. Abbreviations relate to
locations identified in text. Topography after NOAA.

4. Discussion : Evolution of African Basins and Margins
This section of the paper reviews the classification and origin of the various types of African basin and
discusses the hypotheses proposed as drivers to the main tectonic events affecting them. Many of
these remain speculative at this stage of evaluation and no doubt others will see different interpretations
that fit our maps.
4.1 Continental Margins
Our knowledge of Africa’s continental margins has grown substantially in recent years, even though
much of the key data may not yet be in the public domain. We no longer consider a sharp continent-
ocean boundary but instead a wide transition zone between thick continental crust and pure oceanic
crust, which is typically around 300km in combined length. This likely reduces in a pre-drift
reconstruction to half that figure (i.e. Beta ~ 2), The only exceptions to this are the sharp transform
margins. For the margins where we have the most data, particularly West Africa, a migration of tectonic
activity is observed, outboard towards the eventual continental split. An oceanward younging model
also applies to volcanism on volcanic rifted margins.
There is a tendency in some literature to assume that the whole of an ocean opens as a unit at a
specific age and therefore to take evidence from one point and apply it to the whole ocean. The maps
compiled here favour models of propagation of continental breakup, trends which are sometimes
termed ‘unzipping’. This word is perhaps a simplification as what seems to happen on margins that are
currently active (Gulf of Aden to Red Sea) and can be observed for those with distinct magnetic stripes
(e.g. southern South Atlantic, Perez-Diaz and Eagles, 2014) is that spreading jumps sharply to and then
stalls for a few million years on major transforms. On a broad scale, there are five such ‘unzipping’
trends identified around the African plate (Figure 22) : 1) from the Neotethys off the Middle East
(Triassic spreading), to the Bajocian spreading of the Alpine (Ligurian) Ocean ; 2) a N-S propagation of
the Central Atlantic through the Jurassic to Guyana and possibly then into the Proto-Caribbean ; 3)
from the Somali Basin to the Indian Ocean off Mozambique, initiations ranging from Early to Late
Jurassic; 4) from a Valanginian initiation of the southernmost South Atlantic, younging northwards to
the final separation of South America from the Liberia to Benin margin in the earliest Cenomanian, and
5) the Neogene to Recent northwards propagation of the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. There are
exceptions on a more local scale to the propagational model, particularly the early establishment of
oceanic crust off the Benguela Basin of Angola. This particular case is speculated to be linked to
ongoing extreme rifting on the Sao Paulo platform/Rio Grande rise at a time of early ocean
emplacement to the north and south, leaving to the eventual formation of a series of microcontinents.
Several cases have been proposed in this paper for the formation of such stranded continental
fragments, arising though the common switches in the location of rifting and spreading. More of these
may occur undetected in foundered oceanic areas. These observations clearly have implications for the
understanding of the underlying mechanisms under which continents split.
Classifications for all margins are shown on Figure 22. This demonstrates the complexity of these, and
how rapidly a margin type can change along strike. Under half (45%) of Africa’s margins in length fit the
traditional rifted margins model (Figure 22), the type examples being the Red Sea and the Gabon to
Angola salient of the South Atlantic. 35% formed initially as transform or highly oblique margins,
including most of North Africa, the Agulhas margin and much of the Liberia to Benin margin. 20%
formed as volcanic rifted margins, which are notably concentrated in southern Africa, suggesting a long
lived supply of magma in that region. Some margins show characteristics of more than one of the three
types, so the three terms should be regarded as end-members. The concentration of volcanic rifted
margins in southern Africa clearly indicates the long term supply of magma in this region, something
that is also represented by other events in southern Africa’s geological history. A major driver to much
of the tectonics in this region, including the Agulhas Fault movements and the opening of the southern
South Atlantic, appears to be the Bouvet mantle plume.
4.2 Intracratonic Rifts
The existence of rifts on all 19 of the maps testifies to long lived tensional stress over the African plate.
Over the Late Jurassic to Cretaceous, this tensional stress seems to have been orientated NE-SW on
Present Day geography, as evidenced by the dominant NW-SE orientation of transform-related
(passive) rifts. The trend seems to swing to N-S in the Paleogene. The change in the trend on Present

Day geography could be related to the change in plate direction of Africa that occurred around the
Santonian. However, the observation of such long lived tensional stress is not from what would be
expected from the existence, since the Albian, of spreading ridges surrounding the continent. This
change can be alternatively attributed to a switch from dominantly crustal to dominantly mantle
tectonics in the younger intervals, i.e. from passive to active rifting.
Rifts are most significant in the Permian of southern Africa, Late Triassic of North Africa, Early
Cretaceous of Central Africa and the Neogene of East Africa (Figure 22). Every conceivable model for
the generation of rifts can be applied somewhere. An attempt at classification, using Merle (2011)’s
system, is shown on Figure 22. At Permian times, a population of inversion-prone transform-related
passive rifts are observed orientated along a large transform crossing southern Africa, together with
another population, lacking later inversion, that trend perpendicular to this transform. This pattern
seems to be repeated for the Cretaceous Central Africa Rift System and possibly for the Agulhas rifts of
South Africa in the Late Jurassic. As a result, of Merle (2011)’s six classes of rift, the commonest in the
Mesozoic of Africa are the transform-related (passive) category.
Clear models are more difficult to develop for northern Africa Mesozoic rifts, but hypotheses have been
generated that require further analysis. The E-W trending Western Desert and Cyrenaica rifts are
suggested to be transform-related (passive) rifts that run semi-parallel to and are coeval with a
Jurassic-Early Cretaceous transform along the Egyptian coast. The Honduran Borderland rifts/Cayman
Trough provide a geometric analogue.
A few Mesozoic rifts seem to be in a class of their own, being seemingly isolated from any other rifts or
controlling transforms. Examples include the early stage of rifting of the Sirt Basin and the Anza Basin.
Both show a lack of correlation of subsidence events with nearby rifts, high and wide deeply eroded rift
shoulders and little associated volcanism. The evidence for major uplift again fits the characteristics of
plume-related (active) rifts, although, as in the Western Branch of the EARS, the absence of significant
magmatism does question this. The Sirt Basin is here interpreted as an active rift that later evolved into
a transform-related (passive) rift, whereas the earliest Cretaceous Afro-Brazilian Depression is
suggested to be the opposite, i.e. a transform related (passive) rift that later evolved into a plume-
related (active) rift and thereafter a hyperextended rifted margin. Such changes in the mechanisms
controlling rifts over time are perhaps not surprising as extensional faults are well known to exploit
previously developed weaknesses, whatever their cause. We should maybe therefore view many rifts
as transitional, both in time and their characteristics, between end-member ‘plume-related (active)’
categories and the various ‘passive’ categories.
The origin of the various rifts assigned to the onshore EARS is best considered on Present Day
tectonics (Figure 21). There vary considerably in associated volcanism, differing associations with
mantle S wave velocities (where such data is available), and in the geometry and height of rift
shoulders. The magma-rich Eastern Branch rifts have been proposed as the archetypal ‘active‘ rifts
(e.g. Allen and Allen, 2013), equivalent to the ‘plume-related rifts’ of Merle (2011). The Western Branch
is much less magma-rich but has high rift shoulders and does not easily fit any of the rift categories of
Merle (2011). Significant crustal thinning is interpreted over parts of the young NW-SE trend trough
Zambia (Daly et al, 2020), suggesting that ‘active plume-related’ rift models apply there, despite a lack
of magmatism. Michon et al (2022) believes that the overall EARS geometry and history cannot be
attributed to purely ‘active’ or ‘passive’ models, interpreting that a plume-related (active) phase evolves
in the Miocene into a ‘plate-scale rifting’ phase, inferred by them to have a greater passive element. Our
view is that the main driver for the onshore EARS must be active rifting, likely tied to the plumes and
density differences arising from the underlying African superplume (e.g. Kendall and Lithgow-Bertollini,
2016). Imaging of the mantle from S wave velocity analysis suggests the existence of a mantle
convection cell that rises from the lower mantle below South Africa to an eruption in the southern Red
Sea (Adams and Nyblade, 2011). Rises in the S wave anomaly are apparent below Western Branch
rifts. A passive rift model for the system is hindered by the lack of any observable mechanism such as
associated major transforms, (the Aswa (AS) transform excepted), unlike those seen for the transform-
related passive rift population on our various Mesozoic maps. Although some individual rifts in the
Western Branch may have a passive element (e.g. related to the Aswa Transform), a purely ‘passive’
model in our view cannot explain the significant regional uplifts that create the high flat rift shoulders
that characterize most EARS rifts.

The late Neogene Kerimbas and Lacerda (KE/LA on Figure 21) offshore rifts developed off Tanzania
and Madagascar, which are usually assigned to the EARS, appear to be very different however. They
do not seem to be connected by any lineaments to those in the onshore and show neither significant
magmatism nor high rift shoulders. These observations suggest a different model must apply. They
could be transtensional in origin (i.e. transform-related (passive) rifts), evidencing continued sinistral
movements on the Seagap and Davie Fracture Zones, as suggested by Iacopini et al (2022). It is
hypothesised here that this inferred movement on the offshore transforms could be ‘escape’ tectonics
arising from compression to the north as eastwards directed movement of the Somali Plate meets
westwards directed ridge push from the Indian Ocean. The compilation of a regional scale model that
honours the contrasting observations in all East African rifts is a research item recommended by this
study. Further imaging of the mantle below East Africa will be a critical component of such a study.
Africa therefore shows a full diversity of different types of rift with different causal mechanisms. Such
differences will be reflected in subsidence histories and stratigraphic responses. Workers on these rifts
therefore need to great care in applying analogues from one rift to its neighbours, particularly in
attempting to draw petroleum system analogues.
4.3 Compression and Inversions
Major compressional tectonics in Africa are limited to the Permo-Trias of the Cape Fold Belt, the
Neogene of NW Africa, and arguably the Early Cretaceous transpressional structures on the southern
parts of the Davie Ridge. The first two are the only cases over the period covered by this paper of
collision with other continents. Smaller scale inversion structures are caused by transpressional
‘shocks’ to the otherwise extensional systems of the African plate, which are delivered at several times
in the Aptian, Maastrichtian, early Oligocene and Early to Middle Miocene, together with a more
regional event in the Santonian. These events generally increase in intensity towards the north of the
plate, particularly the north-east, and many can be tied to Tethyan/Alpine Belt events. The Santonian
(and ?Turonian) event may however have multiple causes related to a global plate reorganisation,
including the acceleration of India at the Africa-India boundary. A Burdigalian-Langhian event in the
Levantine Basin is tied to the collision of Arabia with Anatolia.
4.4. Major Transforms
Roughly a third of the African plate was during its breakup bounded by transforms. The orientations and
timings of these are well controlled, with the exceptions of those on the northern margin. A model has
been proposed for the northern margin, comprising two major Jurassic transforms and a transfer zone
in the Gulf of Sirt, for which the proposed analogue is the geometry associated with the two major
Cretaceous transform faults of the Liberia to Benin margin. However, the model remains hypothetical
and should be revisited when more seismic evidence becomes available, particularly in areas such as
the Gulf of Sirt. It is also suggested that transform activity commenced earlier than commonly assumed
on the southern Africa margin, i.e. in the Mid-Late Jurassic, though not necessarily involving the
Agulhas Fault itself. From the Oligocene onwards, the influence of cross-plate transforms is much
diminished, reflecting perhaps the increased distance to oceanic ridges.
The drivers to the Central African Lineament and its associated transform and rift systems may be more
complex than suggested by previous authors (e.g. Fairhead, 2022). It is suggested here that the initial
driver in the Early Cretaceous was the counterrotation of Africa and South America as the South
Atlantic started to open. Later on, the driver was probably the opening of the transform components of
the Liberia to Benin margin and thereafter the extension of oceanic fracture zones, as documented in
existing literature.
To date there are only three confirmed long transforms crossing the plate active in Mesozoic times,
which are the Central African Lineament, the Southern Trans-Africa Shear System (STASS) and the
system of N-S trending Algerian sinistral transforms active in the Aptian. This seems surprising given
the proliferation of transform-related (passive) rifting over the continent. If the Santonian inversion event
is driven largely from the NE, how for instance can Central African basins be affected without
connecting transforms?. Why do we still see some isolated rifts unconnected to the main trends by any
known lineament?. We support the interpretation of Guiraud et al (1985) that a transform links the
Guinea lineaments of southern Egypt to the Senegal Fracture Zone, running through the Agadez Line of
Niger. A further candidate for a significant Mesozoic transform movement is a reactivation of the Late

Proterozoic to Paleozoic Trans-African Lineament. This lineament extends from the Benue Trough,
defines the southern boundary of the East Niger rifts, runs as a gravity anomaly through Chad, and
more doubtfully through a data poor area in the Kufra Basin of Libya to the inverted Bahariya Basin of
the Egyptian Western Desert. It could extend further from there into the Pelusium Line of the Levantine
Basin. Activation of the entire lineament, at least in Santonian to Maastrichtian times, would explain
similarities in the tectonic histories of the Western Desert and Benue Trough, which are the two best
known inverted rifts in Africa.
These possible regional transforms are shown with question marks on the relevant time periods and on
Figure 22. There are undoubtedly more, which might be located by geophysical and other work. The
actual lateral movements on these transforms need not be significant as demonstrated by the limited
offsets assessed from 3D seismic mapping on the Seagap Fracture Zone.
4.5 Uplifts and Paleotopography
The only current high topography in Africa that can be related to recent orogenesis is the Atlas
Mountains. For others we must seek other explanations, e.g. for the ‘basin and swell’ topography
across the continent. These intra-plate topographic highs start to grow in the Late Cretaceous in
southern Africa and in the Late Eocene in North Africa. This could be related to the increased distance
to surrounding oceanic ridges at these times, allowing mantle effects below the centre of the plate
rather than those associated with divergent margins to dominate. Circular highs of circa 1.5km relief in
northern Africa, that are capped by mantle derived alkali volcanics, seem to fit well into a model of
asthenosphere rises, particular as some, e.g. in Algeria, have positive heat flow anomalies associated
with them (Macgregor, 2020). The Southern Africa Plateau seems to be a larger and more complex
feature, with perhaps multiple phases of uplift to it, and there no generally accepted model for its origin
other than a loose association with a low velocity anomaly in the lower mantle (Adams and Nyblade,
2011, Stanley et al, 2021). That it sits surrounded on three sides by large areas of Cretaceous volcanic
rifted margin and magmatic crust is perhaps a clue to its mantle origins.
A further topography type is represented by the enigmatic uplifts semi-paralleling rifted margins, with
the Reguibat of NW Africa a type example (Charton et al, 2021). The palaeotopography interpreted
inboard of the East African margin also fits this topography type, with evidence for circa 3km of uplift in
the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene (Noble et al, 1997). Both regions have very high sediment
thicknesses offshore, a product at least partly of the erosion of these highs, suggesting that one of the
physical mechanisms at play is isostacy, i.e. weight is removed from a high onshore and transferred to
the adjoining sink, causing a rebound in the onshore and subsidence in the offshore. However, such a
process needs to be initiated and the scale of the uplifts suggests that there must be other forces in
play as well. The similarities in US Atlantic and NW African stratigraphies and sedimentation rates, for
instance, suggest a common oceanic driver such as ridge push. Perhaps the highs commence as very
low angle asymmetric anticlinal features pushed up by the resistance of continental crust to oceanic
spreading.
4.5 Implications for Petroleum Systems
Just as the release of petroleum exploration data has contributed to this new understanding of African
tectonics, so these new models can be applied back into the exploration process, particularly at a
regional screening level. A full treatment of all implications would require a separate paper, so
examples given in the text above have been largely limited to those for petroleum systems. A fuller
analysis of the relationships between source rock development, generation timing and large scale
tectonics is given in Burke et al (2003).
Deep lacustrine (type i) source rocks can only develop in lakes sufficiently deep to prevent circulation
cells bringing in oxygen from the surface. Essentially, therefore, the rate of subsidence must exceed
that of sedimentation. Consequently, they occur predominantly within the syn-rift sections apparent on
these maps, with Lake Tanganyika being the modern analogue (Huc et al, 1990). The proportion of
African oil derived from deep lacustrine sources is higher than that globally (based on figures in
Klemme and Ulmishek (1991), this being attributable to the frequently of rifting on the African Plate and
to favourable climates. An example of a new source rock model here would be that of Aptian syn-
transform source rocks on the Liberia to Benin margin: these are known in Brazil but not on the African
conjugate.

Figure 22: A summarised tectonic elements map of the Africa plate. Rifts and other lineaments are assigned to
stratigraphic intervals by the colour in the key to the map. Types of rift according to Merle (2011) scheme with
proposed causal mechanism in green bold : P/A : Plume Related/Active Rift, M/A : Mountain Related/Passive Rift,
P/A : Transform Related/Passive Rift. Interpretation of margin tectonics in black bold : RM=Rifted margin (magma-
poor), VRM= Volcanic rifted margin (magma-rich), TR=Transform margin, OM=Oblique margin, MAG=Magmatic
crust. Hatched areas show regions of crustal thinning between necking zones and true oceanic crust. Age of
emplacement of first oceanic crust in blue italics : Tr=Triassic, J=Jurassic, K=Cretaceous, T=Tertiary
Type ii marine source rocks often develop in tectonically controlled depressions, either in late syn-rift
and early post-rift times (Klemme and Ulmishek, 1991). The early Aptian source rocks that develop
between the Walvis and Falklands Ridges bounding the southern South Atlantic (Van der Spuy, 2003)
form in a tectonically controlled restricted ocean at an early stage in its development (Figure 12). Such
Aptian rock models have proved particularly successful in discoveries within recent years in the Orange
Basin and seem certain to also occur on other margins to this ocean. The clockwise propagational
relationships seen around African margins from Somalia to Guinea in age of rifting, age of first marine

transgression and age of continental breakup, should also be reflected in trends of oceanic restrictions
and anoxia. This supports the potential for source rock development in the Jurassic of offshore East
Africa (e,g, Boote and Matchette-Downes, 2009), ranging perhaps from Early Jurassic off Somalia to
Late Jurassic off South Africa.
Type iii marine source rocks are typically characterized by land derived kerogen, thus show a lesser
degree of tectonic control. However the rivers that focus this land derived kerogen into specific
prodeltaic outlets are often tectonically controlled, examples being the Niger and Zambezi river
systems. Constructions of river systems with time are not shown on these maps due to lack of space
but are available on www.africageologicalatlas.com.
The thermal history of these source rocks is very much related to tectonic history. Heat flow in African
basins has demonstrated to vary initially with the mechanism by which the basin is generated, with its
exposure to igneous activity and, due to thermal cooling with time, with the age of the basin
(Macgregor, 2020). Basin modelling exercises in frontier areas which lack calibrating maturity data
within the basin concerned are dependant on the application of analogue heat flow histories. This work
should aid the selection of these critical analogues.
5. Regional Conclusions
5.1 Continental Margins
African continental margins are of multiple types and develop along a set of propagational trends.
The eastern Mediterranean (Neotethys) propagates into offshore Lebanon and Turkey in the Late
Triassic, reaching offshore Egypt in the late Early to early Middle Jurassic, then forming an E-W
transform along the sharp Egyptian margin. The Gulf of Sirt margin is a dip-slip salient between this
transform and an extension of the Azores-Gibraltar Fracture Zone. These processes form what is
essentially a Jurassic transform margin to North Africa.
Following a major magmatic event at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (the ‘CAMP’ plume), the first
Central Atlantic oceanic crust is thought to have been emplaced around 190Ma, though north of the
Blake Spur only. This ocean then propagates south to Guyana around the Oxfordian, forming a
combination of hyperextended and volcanic rifted margins that are still not fully understood.
In East Africa, the Somali Basin originally opens as a hyperextended rifted margin off Somalia and as
an oblique margin off Kenya and Tanzania, then switches sharply to a transform margin with the
creation of the Davie Transform in latest Jurassic times. The onshore Southern Mozambique Basin is
likely underlain by a very wide zone of seaward dipping reflectors, i.e. is largely a volcanic rifted margin.
Small continental fragments sheared off this zone likely exist over the Mozambique Rise.
The Agulhas margin opens on the Agulhas transform fault in the Early Cretaceous. Some transform
movements were initiated on other faults in the late Middle Jurassic, as evidenced by the westwards
younging of the first marine transgressions in the Agulhas Basins and the occurrence of some Late
Jurassic transform-related (passive) rifts. Our Late Jurassic fit of the Falklands places the islands south
of Cape Province rather than off Natal.
A south to north oceanic propagational model is interpreted for the South Atlantic, commencing in the
extreme south in the Valanginian, and propagating northwards to final breakthrough to the Central
Atlantic in early Cenomanian times. The Bouvet Plume drives at least the first opening in the south,
which commences a period of counter-rotation of Africa versus South America. Within the Gabon-
northern Namibia salient, rifting propagates both northwards and southwards towards a meeting point
off northern Namibia, Rifting also progressively youngs in age from the continent towards the eventual
continental split. The data support a latest Aptian-earliest Albian age for breakup for most of this
segment of the South Atlantic. Rifted margins predominate, with sections of volcanic margin off Namibia
and northern Gabon.
The final separation of Africa and South America takes place in the early Cenomanian on both the
Agulhas and the Liberia to Benin margin, which is composed of two major transforms connected
through a small hyperextended margin in Ghana..

5.2 Interior Africa Rifts and Swells
From the Permian through to the Cretaceous, the dominant tectonic style in interior Africa is that of
transform-related (passive) rifts associated with major shear zones. These shear zones, of which some
may still not be recognised, are driven by a variety of mechanisms, including rotations of Africa, events
on distant continental margins and oceanic reorganisations. Cretaceous plume-related ‘active’ rifts are
tentatively identified as the Anza and Sirt Basins, though these are magma poor. A NE-SW orientated
stress regime is particularly apparent in the earliest Cretaceous, though the spread of this trend to
northern Africa is prevented until the Barremian by an east-west trending passive rift trend associated
with eastern Mediterranean opening. From Aptian onwards, a series of short transpressive events are
recognised, inverting parts of many rifts. Many of these originate from events on the northern plate
margins, though the Santonian event may also be influenced by Atlantic and Indian ocean events. The
South African Plateau forms in the Late Cretaceous, through a poorly understood but clearly mantle
related mechanism that may be indirectly related to the frequency of alkaline volcanism on surrounding
margins.
Passing into the Paleogene, interior rifts are seen to migrate from a dominant NW-SE trend associated
with the Cretaceous stress regime to a more N-S trend. By this time, Africa has become distant from its
surrounding oceanic ridges, allowing mantle activity below the continent, already significant in southern
Africa, to become the dominant force across the rest of the plate. This heralds the formation of the
plume-related (active) East African Rift System and the swells of northern and eastern Africa. The
EARS system has since expanded and is leading to segmentation of the African Plate.
6. Acknowledgements
This paper has only two formal authors, but the contributors are many. We acknowledge numerous
presenters at Petroleum (subsequently Geoenergy) Society of Great Britain, Geological Society of
London, Houston Geological Society and American Association of Petroleum Geologists conferences,
who have illustrated data that has not appeared in any published paper. We particularly acknowledge
useful discussions with Ian Davison and David Boote over West and North Africa respectively. As this
work had no funding, access to published papers through the Geological Society of London library was
critical and we acknowledge several years of assistance provided there by the library staff
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