TABLE OF CONTENT
TITTLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………………………i
CERTIFICATION…………………………………………………………………………………..ii
DEDICATION…………………………………..…………………………..……………………iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………..…………………………..……………………..iv
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….………..v
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………..……………………………..………………vi
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………….x
TABLES…………………………………………………………………………………………..xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION…………………….…….…………………………………………..1
1.0 Background Study/Information…………..……………………….………………………..…1
1.1Geographical Setting………..…………………………………..…………..…………………2
1.1.1 Accessibility………….……………………………………….…………………………2
1.1.2 Physiography………………………..……………………………………………………..2
1.1.3 Drainage………………………………………………………………………………….2
1.1.4 Vegetation….………………………………….………………………………..……….2
1.1.5 Weather and Climate………….……………………………………………………………3
1.2 Aims and Objective……….………………………..……………….…………………………3
CHAPTER TWO: LITURATURE REVIEW
2.1Origin of the Benue Trough and Regional Tectonic and setting…………………..………….8
2.2 Lithostratigraphy………………………………………………………………………………9
2.2.1 Asu River Group……………………………………………………………………………….9
2.2.2 Eze-Aku Group……………………………………………………………………………….10
2.2.3 Awgu Group…………………………………………………………………………….10
2.2.4 Afikpo Basin……………………………………………………………………………10
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY AND INSTRUMENTATION
3.0 Desk Study……………………………………………………………………………………17
3.1 Field Study……………………………………………………………………………………17
3.1.1Preliminary Stage………………………………………………………………………..17
3.1.2 Reconnaissance Stage…………………………………………………………………..17
3.1.3Detailed Study…………………………………………………………………………..17
3.2 Sampling……………………..……………………………………….………………………18
3.3 Thin Ssectioning……………………………………………………………………………..18
3.4 Petrographic Studies…………………………………………………………………………18
3.5 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………19
3.6 Reporting……………………………………………………………………………………..19
CHAPTER FOUR: DESCRIPTION OF LITHOLOGY UNIT
4.0 Location1…………………………………………………………………………………….20
4.1 Location2…………………………………………………………………………………….21
4.2 Location3…………………………………………………………………………………….22
4.3 Location4…………………………………………………………………………………….23
4.4 Location5…………………………………………………………………………………….25
4.5 Location6…………………………………………………………………………………….27
CHAPTER FIVE: LABORATORY ANALYSIS OF FIELD DATA AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
5.1 Sieve and Compositional Method……………..………………………………………..……30
5.1.1Equipment used…………….……………..….…..…………………………………….32
5.1.2 Procedures………..…………………………………………………………………….32
5.1.3 Analysis…………………………………….………..…………………………………32
5.1.4 Interpretation…………………………………………………………………………..37
5.1.5 Summary………………………………………………………………………………39
5.2 PALYNOLOGICAL AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY ANALYSIS…………………………..44
5.2.1 Method of Sample Preparation……………………………………………………………44
5.2.2 Palynological Result………………………………………………………………………44
5.2.2 Summary of age assessment………………………………………………………………..47
5.3 KEROGEN INVESTIGATION……………………………………………………………….49
5.3.1 Method of Study……………………………………………………………………………49
5.3.2 Result……………………………………………………………………………………….49
5.4 Pertographic Analysis………………………………………………………………………52
5.4.1 Amasiri Coarse-Grained Sandstone Unit……………………………………………..61
5.4.2 Comprehensive Secondary School Amasiri (Ozara Uukwu sandstone unit) Medium
Grained Sandstone Unit….………………………………………….……………………..61
5.4.3 Conrock Quarry-Fine grained Sandstone Unit……………………………………….61
CHAPTER SIX: DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT
SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………………………62
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………….63
REFERENCE…………………………………………………………………………………….64
APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………………….68
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Map showing the location, Physiography, drainage pattern of the map area (inset)……4
Figure 2: Vegetation Map of Nigeria ((Atlas Map of Nigeria)……………………………………5
Figure 3: Rainfall map of the Study Area (Atlas Map of Nigeria). Inset is the location of the Study Area………………………………………………………………………………………..6
Figure 4: Geologic map of the study area Ozara Ukwu……………………………………………7
Figure 5: Structural units of the southern Benue trough showing the Afikpo Sub-basin (after Benkhelil, 1987)……………………………………………………………………………..…..12
Figure 6: Regional Stratigraphy of Southeastern Nigeria (After Nwajide, 1990)…………..……15
Figure 7: Stratigraphic columns of the southeastern Nigerian sedimentary basins modified after (Reyment, 1982; Petters and Ekweozor, 1982 and Ojoh, 1992)…………………………………16
Figure 8: Sandstone outcrop with joints located at Ehi Community in Amasiri…………………19
Figure 9: Sandstone with burrows on it, located at the base of Utemkpume Oheachara hill, Amasiri…………………………………………………………………………………………….20
Figure 10: Trace fossils on Sandstone Outcrop, located at the base of Ute Mkpume Oheachara hill, Amasiri………………………………………………………………………………………21
Figure 11: Poorly consolidated whitish Sandstone located at Comprehensive Secondaryschool, Amasiri.…………………………………………………………………………………………..22
Figure 12: finely laminated crossbedded sandstone……………………………………………..23
Figure13: Foreset dippingcrossbedded Sandstone unit at the top of the quarry within the Ozara UkwuRidge………………………………………………………………………………………..
Figure 14:Underlying highly indurated shale at abandoned mine at Ozara Ukwu forming the basal unit of the outcrop…………………………………………………………………………24
Figure 15: Highly dipping sandstone beds on the outcrops located at the Conrock Quarry, Amasiri……………………………………………………………………………………………25
Figure 16: Highly dipping fissile to flaggy shale beds located at Conrock Quarry, Amasiri…………………………………………………………………………………………..26
Figure17: Complex joint structures found on a sedimentary rock located at Conrock Quarry……………………………………………………………………………………………27
Figure18a: Black fissile laminated shale located at the valley of Nkelogo Asaga Hill………….28
Figure 18b: Black fissile laminated shale located at the valley of Nkelogo Asaga Hill……………………………………………………………………………………………….28
Figure 19: Gastropod (Turritella sp.) shells found at the valley of Nkelogo- Asaga, Amangwu Hill………………………………………………………………………………………….……29
Figure 20: Udden-Wentworth grain size scale for sediments……………………………………31
Figure 21: Graphic Median vs Graphic Standard Deviation (after Stewart, 1958)…………………………………………………………….……………………………….38
Figure 22: Graphic Median vs Graphic Standard Deviation (after Stewart, 1958)………………38
Figure 23: Graphic Skewness vs Graphic Kurtosis (after Friedman, 1961)……………………..39
Figure 24: Graphic Standard Deviation vs Graphic Skewness (after Friedman, 1967)………….39
Figure 25: Graphic Mean Size vs Graphic Standard Deviation (after Moiola and Weiser, 1968)……………………………………………………………………………………………..40
Figure 26: Graphic Mean Size vs Graphic Standard Deviation (after Moiola and Weiser, 1968)……………………………………………………………………………………………..40
Figure 27: Graphic Mean Size vs Graphic Standard Deviation (after Glaister and Nelson, 1974) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………41
Figure28: Micrographs of some palynomorphsrecovered in the examined samples……………48
Figure 29: Histogram % frequency distribution of the total particulate organic matter (POM) present in the examined samples…………………………………………………………………50
Figure 30: Summary of the kerogen characterization and interpretations……………………….50
Figure 31: Photomicrographs of the kerogen slides showing the various (POM) in the examined samples………………………………………………………………….………………………..51
Figure 32: Ternary Plotfor the classification of Sandstone (after Folk, 1974)………………………………………………………………………………………..……54
Figure 33: Ternary Plot for the classification of Sandstone provenance (after Folk, 1974)…..…56
TABLE
Table 1: The lithostratigraphic framework of the southern Benue Trough and Anambra Basin from the Albian to Eocene (Modified after Reyment, 1965; Murat, 1972)………………………14
Table 2: Table showing calculated univariate parameters and their interpretations from the Map Area………………………………………………………………………………………………36
Table 3: The table showing the modal composition of the various sandstones…………………53
ABSTRACT
Ozara Ukwu and its environs (the study Area) is located within the Abakaliki Basin and the Afikpo sub Basin, respectively within the Afikpo Area. Detailed geologic mapping was carried out in other todetermine the various stratigraphic lithologic units, depositional environment, provenance, age and kerogene characterization, respectively using the basic field and laboratory procedures. Based on field observations, two lithostratigraphic units of the Ezeaku Group and Nkporo Group were identified based on the various diagnostic tools such as, dip of beds and microfossil assemblages. The older Ezeaku group sediments is made up of the basal older Unit of the map area consisting of alternative sequence of indurated fissile shale, calcareous rock (limestone?) and medium to coarse grained, poorly sorted, positively to near symmetrical, leptokurtic sandstone lithofacies, respectively, representing the Amasiri sandstone. It is overlain by narrowindurated Amasiri shale and the Ozara Ukwu sandstone facies respectively. The Ozara Ukwu sandstone unit is made alternating sequence of indurated gray shale, and medium to coarse grained, poorly sorted, positively to near symmetrical leptokurtic cross bedded sandstone lithofacies. These sediments of theEzeaku group are highly indurated, jointed, and highly dipping in the southeast direction with maximum angle of about 500, probably suggesting influence of tectonism that affected the group during the Santonian times. laboratory evidence suggest that depositional environment probably estuarine environment..The younger nkporo shale sediment represented by late campanian in age following results from an outcrop from the map area..This unit represented by dark fissile shale located at the Amangu area. Also, the presence of gastropods (Turittela species)is an indication and confirmation that the sediments were deposited in a marginal marine environment. The paleoenvironmental inference therefore, is that the Amasiri sandstone, the Ozara ukwu sandstons and the nkporo formation were deposited in environments varying from marginal marine to normal marine. Therefore the map area has provided a diagnostic evidence of the various depositional environment within the southeastern basins of the Lower Benue Trough.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
The area of study is in the northeastern border of Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. The scope area of work covers geological mapping and aspects of geology like: lithology,sedimentology, stratigraphy, [biostratigraphy], and geomorphology, production of geological map, structural geology, and environmental analysis of samples collected from the study area. In the Southern Benue Trough, the nature of most of the units and the dense vegetation as a result of a wet tropical climate have hindered field studies and created a missing link in the proper explanation of the depositional and provenance framework of the basin. The Afikpo area offers a unique opportunity to study and understand thedepositional and provenance processes in the southern Benue Trough as the highly indurated nature of the sediments allow for an abundance of outcrops that is unmatched anywhere else in the region. The fundamental bjectives of this field work is to give detailed description of the geology of Ozara Ukwu and its environs which can be used in interpretation and delineating the depositional environment, areas of environmental hazards and minerals of economic importance in the study area.
1.0 BACKGROUND STUDY
The Benue trough is thought to be as a collection of pull-apart basins, related to transcurrent or strike-slip movement along deep-seated basement shear zones of Pan African origin, reactivated as oceanic transform faults (Benkhelil, 1982 and 1989, Guiraud, 1993).This view is supported by field evidence in the northern Benue Trough where the climate and the nature of the sedimentary units allow for classic geologic study. Geological and geophysical studies have enabled a broad understanding of the geology of the Benue Trough. It was only in the latter part of the 20th century that the structural framework, within the Benue Trough was largely resolved. The Ozara Ukwu area offers a unique opportunity to study and understand the depositional processes, and Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Southern Benue Trough. Being highly indurated, the sediments allow for an abundance of outcrops which were studied in details. However, the dense vegetation of the area, which was as a result of wet tropical climate, hindered field studies and created a missing link in the proper explanation of the structural framework of the basin, (Okonkwo, 2014).
1.1Geographical setting
The study area, Ozara Ukwu and its environs, is located at the northeastern borderof Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. It lies within latitude of 05055’N and 05050’N and longitude of 07055’E and 07050’E. Notable towns that situates within the study area include, to the West is Amaseri town, to the south is Amangwu, and Owutu communities, respectively, etc.
1.1.1 Accessibility
The study area, Ozara Okwu is accessible through road network from Abakaliki–Afikpo road, Afikpo–Okigwe road, Amasiri–Edda road, Unwana road, Ndibe and some outcrops are trekable few meters into the bush and others are along river channels. The main access road to Afikpo area is the Okigwe – Afikpo road and Abakaliki – Afikpo road.
1.1.2 Physiography
The map area lies around on elevation of about 170m above the sea level. Sandstone ridges forms the topographic highs of the area. Areas of moderate relief are often characterized by an intermediate condition of erosion between the extremes on area with high relief on one hand where the underlying shales are easily eroded.In Afikpo region also erosion is more pronounced from N-S along the Abakaliki anticlinorium, most generally occurring are planes underline by shales and silt stones, within the hills and ridges are composed of sand stone lithology.
1.1.3 Drainage Pattern
The drainage pattern is systematical flow of water, water surface or underground due to geomorphological feature of the area and it environment. It depends on the soil type, vegetation and relief. The river has a dendritic drainage pattern with tributaries forming trees structure and mainly associated with coastal area and clay siltstone dominated the environment.
1.1.4 Vegetation
Vegetation in Ozara is characterized by trees shrubs with abundant palm trees. Climate is the average condition of a place over a long period of time
1.1.5 Weather and climate
The climate of Afikpo area is hot and humid with mean annual rainfall of about 152-203cm, which corresponds to its adjacent basin (Anambra basin.). There are two main seasons that dominates the climate in Ozara Ukwu. They are the rainy season and the dry season.The rainy season usually begins minimum temperature towards the end of the rainy season is about 18-210c.While dry season, lasted only from late November to early April.Finally the climate of the studied area is not stable due to seasonal variation.
1.2 Aims and Objectives
– The aims are to identify mappable rock units and logging in other to study the lithostratigraphy of Ozara Ukwu and its environs and to describe in details the different lithology that were encountered.
– The objectives are to deduce the geologic history and possibly geologic time sequence of the deposition as well as to produce a geologic map showing detailed description of the structures and lithologies present in the mapped area.
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