Marine sedimentary environments on some parts of the tropical and equatorial Atlantic margins of Africa during the Late Quaternary

International audienceFrom 18,000 y B.P. up to the Present, major climatic changes combined with eustatic sea-level irregular rise controlled important variations in sedimentary conditions on the Atlantic African margin between 6°S and 21°N. The present shelf deposition of material is also controlled by climatic latitudinal gradients acting on the nature, volume and distribution of terrigenous and carbonate sediments. The evolution of sedimentary conditions during this period may be summarized as follows. Coastal terrigenous deposition Fluvial sands were emplaced in inner shelf paleo-valleys during the beginning of the Wiscon sinian regression, following a major erosion phase providing an important source for the siliciclastic part of the terrigenous influx. In tropical regions (Mauritania, Senegal), aeolian dune sands formed during the arid "glacial" period (the so-called Ogolian) on the emerged shelf, but were destroyed during the subsequent transgression. In the vicinity and south of the Equator (Coˆte d'Ivoire, Congo), aeolian input was reduced but litoral dunes of that period occurred whose remnants may be observed close to the present shoreline. At the lower stand of sea level, fine particles directly by-passed the shelf towards the continental rises and abyssal plains. During the Holocene transgression, the main sedimentary processes occurred only when standstill or slowing of the sea-level rise took place. Then littoral deposits (fine sands of the shore, dune sands and even lagoonal deposits with mangrove peats) accumulated still more or less visible paleo-shorelines. However, offshore from the equatorial river mouths, particularly the main ones (Congo), pelitic sediments settled in morphological and structural lows. High sedimentation rates were common at the beginning but they decreased during the final part of the transgression. In the tropical region terrigenous fluvial input is considerably reduced but, in their northernmost parts, aeolian contribution of silts and ultrafine sands is recorded in the surficial sediments. Carbonate biogenic deposition The main sedimentary unit of bioclastic origin formed during the first standstill of the Holocene sea-level rise (12,000 y B.P.). It is a belt of Amphistegina sands, recorded on the outer shelf between 80 and 120 m, which represents a fossil fauna. Recent bioclastic sands are more developed in the tropical region, north of the area which has been studied; they are more dependent on structural rocky shoals, than in the equatorial zone where terrigenous influxes impede their development. Glauconite deposition This kind of sediment is characteristic of the equatorial regions where two major conditions were satisfied during the low-stand phase: (1) the presence of faecal pellet substrates due to the increase of primary productivity related to the stronger upwellings and, (2) larger iron input releases by podzolic soil evolution. Northward of the Congo-Gabon shelf, effectiveness of both conditions decreased. Offshore from the Coˆte d'Ivoire, iron was trapped in ferralitic profiles and on the Senegal and Mauritania shelves the green grains are rare and berthierine occurs in a limited time and space range