1. ISRN Geophysics

Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 124706, 10 pages

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/124706

Research Article

Estimating the Thickness of Sedimentation within Lower Benue Basin and Upper Anambra Basin, Nigeria, Using Both Spectral Depth Determination and Source Parameter Imaging

2

3D Modelling and Basement Tectonics of

the Niger Delta Basin from Aeromagnetic Data A.A. Okiwelu and I.A. Ude

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/48158 

3. file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/Downloads/chamberlin1e_samplechapter.pdf

4.www.csus.edu/indiv/s/slaymaker/Archives/Geophysics.htm

5.www.academia.edu/.../Magnetic_data_interpretation_and_depth_estimati...

6.www.earthexplorer.com/.../Exploring_beneath_the_La_Rioja_Valley_Ba...

There is a long list, I think these documents will helps up to some extent. 

Hi Elmar,

This is indeed an interesting question. The problem is that Early Paleozoic rocks on the eastern Canadian Shield are only preserved in patches and thus provide a minimum estimate for their original thickness. The (Cambro-)Ordovician is partly preserved in some of the Canadian impact structures where it has been downfaulted and/or preserved in impact breccia deposits (e.g., Charlevoix, Manicouagan, Clearwater West) or as post-impact crater-fill deposits (e.g., Brent crater). One also has to distinguish between the Paleozoic deposits in shield areas and thicker deposits in tectonic graben and half-graben structures, especially in the St Lawrence platform, and the Cambro-Ordovician flysch of the Gaspé Peninsula linked to an Ordovician foredeep.

The man to ask here for his expertise is probably Denis Lavoie from Natural Resources Canada. He’s also here on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denis_Lavoie) and might be aware of a good review article on this matter.

Also check out this Canadian data repository: http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/geoscan_e.web for publications.

Some general figures (maybe not up to date...) are:

Bailey (1928) [1], in an old paper, described the Ordovician (M’Ord. Trenton Gp., U’Ord. Utica and Lorraine Gps.) in front of the thrust-zone as a ≥1,400 ft-thick pile of limestones and shales. Within the thrust zone, he reported at least 1,000 ft of the Sillery, Lévis, Quebec City Groups. However, this is quite an old paper.

Rondot (2000) [2] stated that the Ordovician at the Charlevoix impact structure had a thickness of c. 150 m at the time of impact (which, in turn, we don’t really know – the Devonian ~342 Ma stated everywhere are probably greatly inaccurate, and the impact crater is probably much older, somewhere ≥400 Ma).

More specifically, Lemieux et al. (2003) [3] present a thickness of the Lower Paleozoic suite of ≥189 m in the area of Baie-St-Paul (SW-Charlevoix), ≥405 m near Les Éboulements (central Charlevoix) and ≥135 m near Malbaie (NE-Charlevoix) – these are all graben settings with very variable sediment thickness over short distances.

Grieve (1993), in a pers. comm. to Hische (1994) [4] assumed a thickness of the Ordovician sedimentary cover in the Clearwater Lake area at ~130 m in the Early Permian; i.e., further erosion/denudation has taken place since then, but this is of course also a minimum value for the original depositional thickness.

Wolfe (1972, his p. 31) [5] states that the Ordovician sequence preserved at Manicouagan is rather thin (75 feet) but much thicker at Brent in Ontario (504 feet). However, we note that the crater fill of the ~453 Ma Brent crater may be anomalously thick as this is a post-impact crater fill deposit (laminated tidalites).

Lozej & Beales (1975) [6] stated that this Ordovician post-impact crater fill of Brent crater is 263 m thick.

Lavoie and Asselin (1998) [7] noted that the Ordovician succession reaches a maximum thickness of 60 m in the Lac St-Jean area (Saguenay, where that nice fjord is).

According to Rocher et al. (2003) [8], the St Lawrence lowlands in the Montréal area are represented by a siliciclastic and carbonate platform with a maximum thickness of 1,200 m.

Zhang (2008) [9] stated that The Upper Ordovician Bad Cache Rapids and Churchill River groups and Red Head Rapids Formation of the Hudson Bay Basin (i.e., further NW) are 180–300 m thick.

References:

[1] Bailey, E. B., Collet, L. W., & Field, R. M. (1928). Paleozoic submarine landslips near Quebec City. The Journal of Geology, 577-614.

[2] Rondot, J. (2000). Charlevoix and Sudbury as gravity‐readjusted impact structures. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 35(4), 707-712.

[3] Lemieux, Y., Tremblay, A., & Lavoie, D. (2003). Structural analysis of supracrustal faults in the Charlevoix area, Quebec: relation to impact cratering and the St-Laurent fault system. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 40(2), 221-235.

[4] Hische, R. (1994). Geology of the Clearwater impact structure, Quebec., Part 1, Text (Doctoral dissertation, Wesphalian Wilhelm University, Munster).

[5] Wolfe, S. H. (1972). Geology of the Manicouagan-Mouchalagan lakes structure (Doctoral dissertation, Ph. D. thesis, Calif. Inst. of Technol., Pasadena).

[6] Lozej, G. P., & Beales, F. W. (1975). The unmetamorphosed sedimentary fill of the Brent meteorite crater, southeastern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 12(4), 606-628.

[7] Lavoie, D., & Asselin, E. (1998). Upper Ordovician facies in the Lac Saint-Jean outlier, Québec (eastern Canada): palaeoenvironmental significance for Late Ordovician oceanography. Sedimentology, 45, 817–832.

[8] Rocher, M., Tremblay, A., Lavoie, D., & Campeau, A. (2003). Brittle fault evolution of the Montreal area (St Lawrence Lowlands, Canada): rift-related structural inheritance and tectonism approached by palaeostress analysis. Geological Magazine, 140(02), 157-172.

[9] Zhang, S. (2008). New insights into Ordovician oil shales in Hudson Bay Basin: their number, stratigraphic position, and petroleum potential. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, 56(4), 300-324.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Martin

Hi Martin,

thanks a lot for your detailed and very helpful comments on my question.

Cheers

Elmar

Thank you for your answer, Govind. But, honestly spoken, I asked for an estimation of the original thickness of sediments on the Canadian Shield and not in the Niger and Benue Basin in Afrika.

Best Elmar

I study the of cambro-ordovician sediments in North China Plate , the maximum (original) thickness of cambro-ordovician sediments deposited on the North China Plate is 1800m.

Work on the thermal evolution of the Adirondacks (Grenville in NYS) would suggest that the east side was hotter, and the west side colder.  Thus an interpretation is that the Devonian and older cover tapered and thinned to the west.  So, where you are with respect to the thrust front matters (especially on Grenville in Canada).   However, note that there is an indication that part of the east side was hotter due to fluids. But given the nature of the mid-Ordovician (Trenton/Loraine) and the Devonian (Catskill), it is likely that there was considerable thinning away from the thrust front. There are several fission track studies that suggest burial, in general, was less in Canada.

YOU CAN USE SPI METHODE IN GRAVIMETRIE AND CALCULATE DEPTH OF FORMATION BY THE USE OF 1/K FORMULA

Thanks Oualid - The problem here is that most of the "formation" has been eroded, and Elmar would like to know how thick the Ordovocian could have been before erosion. One has to interpolate from a few patches where these deposits are preserved. 

Hello Elmar,

If I understand well the area you are interested in, you are interested in the area called Ottawa Embayment or Ottawa Lowlands AND the Quebec Basin. Both make up the eastward tappering of the Appalachian-Alleghenian Basin. The Ottawa Lowlands and the Quebec Basin in turn are constricted by the Adirondak Highlands, thus the existence of these two basins rather than one.

Now to your question. There is a plethora of publications on these general area. But it is always good to go to the 'basics' = B.V. Sanford because Sanford 'never dissapointed me' when I was in need of stratigraphic knowledge of St Lawrence platform. He seems to have been everywhere! Sanford, B.V. 1993.  St. Lawrence Platform – Geology; Chapter 11, in Sedimentary Cover of the Craton in Canada, D.F. Scott and J.D. Aitken (ed.); Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada, no 5, pp. 723-786.

In fact, this chapter written by Sanford displays rich x-secs and general strat columns of these general area with scales. In a quick glance at one of those columns, the Quebec Basin thickness reach in excess of 3km while the Ottawa Embayment does around to a bit more of 1km.

I strongly suggest you start by checking this publication. See too if those publication references by Martin above can help you. If you still need more help with your question let me know.

Thanks a lot, Andres, for these helpful hints...

Best Elmar