Sedimentology and Paleogeographic Synthesis of Cretaceous Sediments in Auchi Area of Anambra Basin

Abstract

The sedimentary rock in the Auchi area of Edo State constitutes part of the Upper Cretaceous Deposits of the Anambra Basin, which has its  depocentre in Eastern Nigeria. Lithostratigraphic and Sedimentological studies carried out on twenty eight (28) selected samples from a section of a road–cut show that the sediments range from fine through medium to coarse grained. Sorting is poor to moderate. Grain size analysis shows that the sediments are strongly fine skewed and they exhibit mesokurtic to platykurtic kurtosis. These coupled with the various colours observed in the sediment, ranging from whitish sand through yellowish brown, pink and reddish brown possibly indicate a non–marine environment and a fluviatile to deltaic environment of sedimentation is suggested. The sediments might have been transported in a fairly high energy medium and deposited under a slightly fluctuating velocity.

Keywords: Sedimentology, Cretaceous, Paleogeography, Grain size, Anambra Basin