Cenozoic

Cretaceous

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Afowo Formation

Afowo Fm

Period:

Cretaceous

Age Interval:

early-Late Cretaceous

Province:
Dahomey Basin

Type Locality and Naming

The Abeokuta Gr consists of upward succession of three formations – Ise Fm, Afowo Fm and Araromi Fm. The Afowo Fm type unit was having thickness interval 4000-5340m (1430m) in well Afowo-1 (Omatsola and Adegoke, 1981).

References: Reyment, 1965; Adeleye, 1975; Kogbe,1976; Dessauvagie, 1975; Petters, 1978; Offodile, 1980; Whiteman, 1982; Benkhelil, 1989; Okosun, 1992; Guiraud, 1993; Akande et al., 1998; Zaborski et al., 1998; Jauro et al., 2007; Obaje, 2009; Nwajide, 2013

Lithology and Thickness

Afowo Fm: The beds are composed of mostly medium to coarse sandstone, with thin to thick interbeds of shales, siltstones and claystones. There is a shoaling upward trend and has two bitumen-soaked, fine-grained sand horizons (Nwajide, 2013).

Lithology Pattern:

Clayey sandstone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It rests on the Ise Fm

Upper contact

Overlain by the Araromi Fm

Regional extent

Dahomey Basin

GeoJSON

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Fossils

Sporomorphs (Cicatricosisporites sp., Pilosisporites trichopapillosus, Klukisporites pseudoreticulatus), Pollens (Multiporopollenites aff., M. muculosus), Ammonites (Pachydiscus, Sphenodiscus), Foraminifera,

Age

Turonian – Maastrichtian (Nwajide, 2013); but schematic chart suggests includes the Cenomanian and ends with the Santonian.

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Cenomanian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.0

Beginning date (Ma):

100.50

Ending stage:

Santonian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

83.65

Depositional setting

Alluvial fan setting at the basin edge of the sequence followed by a marine depositional environment within the Araromi sequence.

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

Enam O. Obiosio, Solomon Joshua Avong and Henry Nasir Suleiman (2024)- Stratigraphic Lexicon compiled from the following books:

Nigeria: Its Petroleum Geology, Resources and Potential, by Arthur Whiteman, 1982; (Volume 1) Published by Graham and Trotman Ltd.

A review of the Cretaceous System in Nigeria by P. M. Zaborski (1998) In Africa Geoscience Review, Vol.5, No.4, pp385-483

Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria by Nuhu George Obaje, Published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009; http://www.springer.com/series/772

Geology of Nigeria Sedimentary Basins, Nwajide C. S., 2013; Published by CSS Bookshops Limited, Lagos Nigeria.