Stratigraphic and sedimentologic study of Mesozoic-Tertiary strata in Loiyangalani area, Lake Turkana district, north-west Kenya.

The Mesozoic and Tertiary strata in the Loiyangalani area, north-west Kenya, comprise a thick (350 m) sequence of immature, arkosic siliciclastic and volcaniclastic rocks of Late Cretaceous to Miocene age. These sedimentary rocks were deposited in the Lake Turkana Basin, an asymmetric rift basin within the active Kenya Rift. Their immaturity indicates a local source area in which crystalline basement rocks of the Mozambique Orogenic Belt are well represented. The older, siliciclastic strata (Sera Iltomia Formation) do not have components of volcanic origin and rest directly on the basement. The younger strata incorporate siliciclastic and volcanic material (Kajong Formation) and rest disconformably on the older strata and in places also lie nonconformably on the basement. The Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene basalts of the Loiyangalani Formation conformably overlie the Kajong Formation. Hydrocarbon resources may be present in the oldest potential reservoirs among the fluvial-lacustrine siliciclastic strata, predicted to be 2,500-4,000 m thick, in the Turkana Basin. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 30-03, page: 0677. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1990