CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background to the study
In the northern Benue trough, where the climate and the nature of the sedimentary units allow for geologic studies, which in turn help to provide field evidence supporting the view of the Benue Trough as proposed by Benkheli (1982) and later by Guiraud (1993) which explains that The Benue trough is taught 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. the fine grained nature of most of the units and the dense vegetation as a result of a wet tropical climate in the southern Benue Trough have hindered field studies and created a missing link in the proper explanation of the structural framework of the basin. Afikpo Basin is located in the southern Benue Trough, between the Abakaliki Anticlinorium running northeast and the Cameroon line in the southeast (Okonkwo 2014). It forms part of the lower Benue Trough and the adjacent Anambra basin. Sedimentation took place in the Afikpo basin ranging in age from Cretaceous to Mastrichian. Due to unique geological features in Afikpo basin, different scholars have taken the basin as point of research interest. In light of this therefore, we carried out geological mapping in Amaekpu and its environs to study the geological feartures and deposition environment of the area.
- Aims and objectives
The aim of the study is to study the geological feartures of Amaekpu and its environs. The objectives of the study among others are
- To carry out detailed geologic mapping of Ama-Ekpe, with a view to delineating lithologic contacts, stratigraphic relationships, sedimentary structures and paleontologic association.
- To establish the age of sediment and reconstruction the depositional environment of deposition.
- To evaluate the hydrocarbon source rock potential of the sediments and their degree of thermal maturation.
- To document the economic potential and hydrogeological characteristics of the study area.
1.2 Significance of study