Geometrical Coniguration of the Garoua Basin, North Cameroon as Deduced from Earth Gravitational Model (EGM-2008)

Abstract

Gravity data acquired from Earth Gravitational Model (EGM-2008) was analyzed to estimate the sedimentary thickness, extension and shape of the Garoua Basin, North Cameroon. Residual gravity ield were obtained by bandpass iltering of Bouguer gravity anomalies using Geosoft Oasis Montaj. Two dimensional (2-D) forward modeling of the gravity data using Grav2dc v2.06, which uses the Talwini’s algorithm was conducted along three proiles oriented NE-SW, NNE-SSW and WNW-ESE to verify the lateral variations of the sediment pile beneath these proiles. Accordingly, the Garoua is made up of alternating succession of horsts and grabens bounded to the north and south by normal faults inilled with sedimentary rocks underlain by a rifted basement. The gravity models suggest an average thickness of sediments of 9km with a graben-shaped and extents over 80km. With this thickness of the sediment pile and considering the average temperature gradient, the subsurface of this basin ofers adequate conditions for hydrocarbon generation if source rocks were to be found. The results obtained in this work corroborate those obtained from previous investigations.