The Evolution of Faults System in Cretaceous Sequences, Offshore Cameroon

Located in Kribi - Campo sub - basin on the present day deep - water continental margin slope, the study area covers an area of 1500 km 2 , and contains a sedimentary section up to 6.5 km thick, ranging in age from Upper Cretaceous to Recent. 3D seismic data used in this study covers the deep water section of the basin, and provides an opportunity to investigate the structural and morphological features of the basin in upper Cretaceous, bring a better understanding of the basins stratigraphic evolution. In the late Cretaceous the basin developed as a result of tectonism related to movement of the Kribi Fracture Zone (KFZ), which reactivated in the late Albian and early Senonian. This led to inversion of the early syn - rift section overlying the KFZ to the southeast. Two main fault - sets – N30 and N120 – developed in the center and south of the basin. These normal faults propagated from the syn - rift sequences: the N120 faults die out in the early post - rift sequence (Albian time) whilst N30 faults tend to be associated with the development of a number of fault - related folds in the late Cretaceous post - rift sequence, and have a significant control on later deposition.