Mesozoic Evolution of the Northeast African Shelf Margin, Libya and Egypt

Rolf K. Aadland, Steven Schamel

The present tectonic features of the northeast African shelf margin between the Nile delta and the Gulf of Sirte are products of (1) precursory late Paleozoic basement arches, (2) early Mesozoic rifting and plate separation, and (3) Late Cretaceous structural inversion. The 250 km-wide and highly differentiated Mesozoic passive margin in the Western Desert region of Egypt is developed above a broad northwest-trending basement arch of Late Carboniferous age. In northeastern Libya, in contrast, the passive margin is restricted to the northernmost Cyrenaica platform, where subsidence was extremely rapid in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. The boundary between the Western Desert basin and the Cyrenaica platform is controlled by the western flank of the basement arch. In the middle Cretaceous (90-100 Ma), subsidence accelerated over large areas of the Western Desert, further enhancing a pattern of east-west-trending subbasins. This phase of rapid subsidence was abruptly ended about 80 Ma by the onset of structural inversion that uplifted the northern Cyrenaica shelf margin and further differentiated the Western Desert subbasin along a northeasterly trend.

Isopach and structural maps, cross sections, and sediment accumulation (geohistory) curves constructed from 89 wells in the Western Desert and 27 wells in northeastern Libya depict the structural and stratigraphic development of the northeast African shelf margin.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.