Abstract: Upper Cretaceous Planktonic Foraminifera of the Cuanza Basin, Angola: A Preliminary Approach to Biostratigraphic Zonation

RANDAO, MARIO G. P., THOMAS W. DIGNES

A biostratigraphic synthesis of planktonic foraminiferal data through the onshore and offshore portions of the Cuanza Basin, the most central of the three main Meso-Cenozoic Angolan basins, has been completed. The study objective was to establish a biostratigraphic zonation for the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Maastrichtian) sedimentary section, which could then be used for well-to-well correlations at both local and regional scales. The work commenced in 1991 with the micropaleontological analysis of cuttings from fourteen onshore wells, sixteen offshore wells and ten key outcrop samples collected in the northern, central and southern portions of the basin. New SEM photomicrographs of the key foraminiferal biostratigraphic markers from the Cuanza Basin zonation have been prepared for an atlas of the work.

An overview of the rifted, passive margin origin, tectonic/structural history, and stratigraphic framework of the Cuanza Basin is presented. Historical data relating to petroleum exploration activities, which began as early as 1910, are also examined and integrated in the study.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90942©1997 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria