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Chapter from:
AAPG Studies in Geology #44: Geoscience of Rift Systems-Evolution of East Africa
Edited by C.K. Morley
Copyright ©1999 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
AAPG Studies in Geology #44, Chapter 6: Geophysics of the Usangu Flats, Tanzania, by R. M. Harper, D. M. Stone, and C.K. Morley, Pages 111 - 114

Chapter 6

Geophysics of the Usangu Flats, Tanzania

R.M. Harper
D.M. Stone
Amoco Production Company
Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

C.K. Morley
Department of Petroleum Geoscience
University of Brunei Darussalam
Negara Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

The Usangu Flats are underlain by a sedimentary basin up to 1 km thick, that, from slow interval velocities, is inferred to be young and poorly compacted (Pliocene-Pleistocene). The main fault trends are east-west to northeast-southwest, which is an unusual direction for the East African Rift System (EARS) and may reflect structural development of the basin during a short period when the regional extension direction rotated to a northwest-southeast to north northwest-south southeast direction. The basin fill represents the early stages of rift development and displays faults that controlled the sedimentary section thickness without causing much rotation of the units. The initial basin fill onlapped an undulating basement topography.