RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 1, NO. 3, PAGES 251–269, doi:10.2205/1998ES000014, 1998

Angola basin faults

Abstract

[1]  The authors discuss the main regularities of the tectonic structure of the Angola Basin and, primarily, the main systems of faults and their relationships with the continental margin of Africa. This paper is based on the large number of data published in the literature and available in the Internet, the results of calculating gravity anomalies (Bouguer and isostatic anomalies), the results of the statistical processing of the absolute dating of igneous rocks, and the results of continuous seismic profiling (CSP), which were obtained in 1994 by the researchers of the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy during Cruise 18 of the ship "Academician Nikolai Strakhov". Proceeding from these data, it is concluded that the Angola Basin had been formed in the African plate, which made the latter more mobile. It is possible that the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean created the conditions favorable for the counter-clockwise rotation of the Angola microplate, which caused the formation of the faults discussed.

Received 15 November 1998; published 15 December 1998.

Keywords: Angola basin faults, continental margin of Africa, absolute dating of igneous rocks, continuous seismic profiling.