Sediments Thickness And Structural Framework Of Lake Natron Basin And Their Implications For Hydrocarbon Potentiality

ABSTRACT

Lake Natron is among the basins of the Eastern branch of the East African Rift located in Northern Tanzania. The main objective of this study was to establish the spatial variation of sediments thickness and to delineate the subsurface structures that control the configuration of the basement and their implications for hydrocarbon potentiality. The study utilized both aeromagnetic and gravity data in achieving the objectives. Two dimension gravity modelling, Euler deconvolution of aeromagnetic data and spectral depth methods were used to determine the thickness of sediments. The structural interpretation of gravity and magnetic data were done by applying processing techniques to the observed data. These techniques include Reduced to pole, Analytic signal, Goussav filter and vertical derivatives of aeromagnetic data. The interpretation suggested that the Natron basin is bounded by fault systems, which are mainly trending NE-SW, NW-SE and NS directions. The estimated depths found to the deeper source of 3.18 km and 4.01 km for the aeromagnetic and gravity data, respectively. These depths found on the northern part of the Lake Natron basin. The thickness of sediments decreases from 3.18 km in the northern part of the basin to 2.75 in the southern part using aeromagnetic data. The results from Euler Deconvolution revealed the maximum depth to basement was ranging from 3 km to 3.5 km. Also the results from Euler Deconvolution showed that the study area has different faults/lineaments mostly trending in the NE-SW direction. The results from gravity modelling have shown the variation of sediments thickness ranging from 1.24 km to 4.01 km within the lake basin. Based on these results the northern part of the study area shows the potentiality of hydrocarbon. Integration of both gravity and magnetic data used in this study with seismic data can assist to confirm the potentiality of hydrocarbon in the lake Natron basin.