Journal of Petroleum Geology, vol. 14(1), January 1991, pp.

93-102 93

TECTONIC SUBSIDENCE OF THE SIRTE BASIN, LIBYA

Y. D. Gumati*+ and A. E. M. Nairn*

The Sirte Basin of Libya has a history of faulting and differential subsidence brought about by
lithospheric extension during a 25 MM (million) year period beginning in the Late Cretaceous. The
first phase of extension and initial subsidence, with faulting and graben formation, occurred from
Cenomanian to Campanian times. Following extension, there occurred widespread thermally-driven
subsidence from Maastrichtian through Eocene and Oligocene times, accounting for about half of the
total subsidence.
Details of basin subsidence, sediment accumulation rates, and facies variations have been
reconstructed for the northern Sirte Basin from a suite of approximately 100 completion well logs
and numerous seismic lines. These show that at various times in the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene-
Eocene, renewed differential subsidence followed fault reactivation. Tectonic subsidence maps show
a systematic SE to NW shift in the loci of maximum and minimum subsidence, which parallels the
structural trend of the basin. The greatest subsidence observed in the Sirte Trough is 2,085 meters,
whereas subsidence of the horsts is generally less than 1,000 meters.
The stretching factor (β: in the range of 1.1 to 1.75), corresponds to an extension of 10-75%, with
an average of less than 50%. The greatest stretching is associated with the central graben.

INTRODUCTION

The Sirte Basin of north-central Libya is an intracratonic basin at the northern margin of the
African continent (Fig. 1). The formation of this basin is perhaps the best-documented evidence of the
extensive tensional fracturing of the African Plate in Cretaceous times, although progressively more
data are becoming available from north Africa (Brown et al., 1985; Almond, 1986).
In an earlier paper (hereafter referred to as Paper 1), Gumati and Kanes (1985) discussed the
regional history of the northern Sirte Basin, and demonstrated the relationship between periods of
fault movement and the pattern of facies and depositional environments. In this paper, we attempt to
expand the basin analysis of the northern Sirte Basin by incorporating allowances for compaction,
sediment loading, and water-depth during deposition. With this more refined, if still imperfect,
analysis, it is possible to attempt to resolve total subsidence into tectonic subsidence, isostatic

*Earth Sciences and Resources Institute, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. USA.
+ Present address: Geology Department, UAE University, PO Box 1555, Al Ain, UAE.
94 Tectonic subsidence of the Sirte Basin, Libya

subsidence (sediment- and/or water-loading), and thermal-driven subsidence. We have not

incorporated a factor for sea-level change, because of a lack of generally-accepted values of the
magnitude, frequency, and timing of these changes. However, an order-of-magnitude calculation
using a 100-meter sea-level change does not significantly alter the conclusions reached in this paper.
As indicated by McKenzie (1978) and Steckler and Watts (1978), when the effects of the
depression of the basin floor as a result of sedimentary loading are removed by backstripping, the
remaining subsidence can be attributed to tectonic subsidence. We discuss the extensional history of
the northern Sirte Basin in terms of McKenzie's (1978) model .

GEOLOGIC SETTING

The Sirte Basin is described as resulting from the Cretaceous collapse of a broad structural arch or
domal structure formed during the late Hercynian and subsequently eroded. Using data from wells
that penetrate the sub-Mesozoic basement, it is possible to construct the pre-Mesozoic subcrop map
illustrated in Fig. 2. While subject to the uncertainties attendant upon the use of limited point-source
data, the Cambro-Ordovician subcrop shows that the trend of the Gargaf Arch and the Tibesti
Haroudj Arch is outlined by the Pre-Cambrian subcrop. The basin has thus some of the characteristics
of structural inversion paralleling the development of the Triassic Basin of Algeria.
Beginning with the Cenomanian, the stages of marine transgression may be followed by
establishing the oldest marine Cretaceous. The pattern clearly reflects the differentiation between the
horsts and grabens (see Fig. 1). The oldest basin sediments consist of poorly-dated detrital sediments,
which partly cover an irregular basement topography in the southern part of the basin. In the Sarir
and Messla fields, the thick, basal sequence of fluvial sands — the Sarir (Nubian) Sandstone — forms
an important reservoir (AGOCO, 1980) sourced by the Campanian-Paleocene Sirte Shale (see Gumati
and Schamel, 1988). The Cenomanian transgression along the Sirte Trough marks the invasion of the
Tethyan Sea. Throughout the rest of the Late Cretaceous, marine sediments spread out from the
grabens and, by the end of the Maastrichtian, had covered the entire region. The transgression was
marked by differential movement, with faults active at different periods. On some occasions, horsts
were subaerially exposed (e.g. the Amin High); on others, former horsts subsided and were covered
by basin sediments: in yet others, broad platforms formed by the agglomeration of several fault
blocks (Harding, 1984). The grabens generally deepen northward. The effects of these movements on
facies were outlined in Paper 1.
Following the end of the active rift phase in the Maastrichtian, the Sirte Basin generally continued
to subside through the Paleocene as a simple, broad downwarp, with only minor motion along the old
faults, except for a period of renewed differential movement in the Eocene (e.g. Eocene movement of
the Marada and Sirte Troughs: Gumati, 1985.
The stratigraphic succession was shown in Fig. 6 of Paper 1; an attempt was made to differentiate
between the contemporaneous horst-and-graben lithologies (Barr and Weegar, 1972). As there are
numerous formational names according to the structures being considered, the most common names
were used. Note, in particular, the absence of any major distinction between horst and graben by the
late Paleocene.

SUBSIDENCE

Subsidence rates and patterns are important factors in determining the tectonic and
thermal history of the Sirte Basin. The sedimentary section, and the basement structure of
t h e b a s i n o b t a i n e d f r o m g r a v i t y d a t a a n d s e e n i n w e l l d a t a , show that considerable
96 Tectonic subsidence of the Sirte Basin, Libya

sediment was deposited in shallow-to-deep marine environments. These could have arisen only if
there had been widespread differential subsidence of the basement surface.
The subsidence observed can be resolved into two components: isostatic subsidence, caused by
the response to sediment- and water-loading; and tectonic subsidence, due to rifting of continental
crust and subsequent thermal cooling. To examine tectonic subsidence, and thus obtain information
on the tectonic and thermal history of the basin the isostatic effects of sediment- and water-loading
have been removed from the subsidence record by “backstripping.” The thicknesses of sediment
corresponding to each age-unit horizon were progressively removed, and the isostatic depth-to-
basement response computed. Well data provide the paleodepth, lithology, and porosity information
for each time-interval. As indicated earlier, sea-level variations have not been incorporated, and are
assumed to have remained sufficiently small to be considered invariant.
The backstripping technique, introduced by Steckler and Watts (1978), was revised by
Sclater and Christie (1980). In the present study, the sediment packet was removed for
eac h time -inter val, and the re ma ining horizons uplifted a ccording to standardized
lithology-dependent decompaction of underlying sediments and changes in water loading.
The result is an unloaded basement subsidence curve. Curves computed for more than
5 0 we ll lo c at i on s in th e S irt e Basin, in which wells penetrated synrift and basement
 Y. D. Gumati and A. E. M. Nairn 97

rocks, show that the earliest subsidence occurred during or just after rifting (Fig. 3). Basement, in the
present context, denotes the surface upon which the synrift sediments were deposited. The effect of
correcting for compaction is to increase the estimate of total subsidence (Fig. 3, curve A). Removing
the isostatic effect results in the tectonic subsidence curve (Fig. 3, curve B) which is compounded of
initial subsidence due to faulting and graben formation and thermal subsidence. As Fig. 3 shows, the
isostatic effect accounts of about half of the basin subsidence; the residual is thus a measure of
tectonic subsidence.
In Fig. 4, only the tectonic subsidence curve has been plotted. Note that calculations begin after
the initial subsidence as, in the absence of any measure of the time represented by the clastic
sediments between the basement and the unconformity with dated marine sediments, no estimates of
subsidence rates are possible.The curves show a relatively slow subsidence from 90 to 64 MM yrs
ago, and a more rapid and more uniform rate during the period 64-40 MM yrs.
There are two phases of more rapid subsidence, corresponding to phases of fault activity in the
Campanian and late Paleocene-early Eocene. The amount of tectonic subsidence has been contoured
for four discrete intervals: 64, 60, 50, and 40 MM yrs (Figs. 5,6,7 and 8).
The maps show the persistence of some depocenters, such as the deep Sirte Trough, throughout
the time considered. On the other hand, the Zella Trough does not appear to have developed until
about 60 MM yrs ago, and to have had its maximum development 50 MM yrs ago. The Marada
Trough did not exist until 60 MM yrs ago, and, by 40 MM yrs ago, had ceased to accumulate
significant thicknesses of sediment. The thick sequence over the northern part of the Dahra Platform
developed over a short interval at 50 MM yrs ago.
100 Tectonic subsidence of the Sirte Basin, Libya

DISCUSSION

McKenzie’s (1978) crustal extensional model predicts that subsidence varies as a function of the
stretching of continental crust. In the simplest case, continental lithosphere is stretched and faulted
(generally by listric normal faults) while maintaining isostatic equilibrium in the crust and lower
lithosphere. Fault-dominated initial subsidence occurs only during rifting, and is limited to the rift
zone (McKenzie, 1978). Crustal thinning is also accompanied by passive upwelling of hot
asthenospheric material, which increases the thermal gradient by an amount proportional to the
amount of extension (Royden and Keen, 1980). Subsequently, as the crust and lithosphere cool, both
contract and subside, and over a long period, the thermal gradient returns to equilibrium.
The stretching or extension is described by the parameter β; if the original crust, thickness Tc, is
stretched by an amount β, the thickness of the resultant crust is related to Tc/β; hence, the predicted
subsidence is related to β. Using different values of the amount of extension, a family of curves has
been generated against which values obtained from the Sirte Basin may be compared (Watts, 1981).
It is abundantly clear from the cross-sections and Fig. 6 of Paper 1, and the tectonic subsidence
maps presented here, that different estimates of crustal stretching and thinning can be obtained—
depending on whether the extension parameters are derived data from wells in the platforms, where
tectonic subsidence is generally less than 1,000 meters, or from basins where the tectonic subsidence
may exceed 2,000 meters. The tectonic subsidence curves plotted in Fig. 9 suggest crustal thinning
ranging from 10 to 40% in platform areas, and from 25 to 75% in the basins (Fig. 10), and give an
average extension for the northern Sirte Basin of <50%.
The cross-sections constructed in Paper 1, therefore, suggest that if a McKenzie model is
applied, necking occurs at several places located at the horst/graben margins where fractures
developed. These data also indicate that necking occurred at different times. The
 Y. D. Gumati and A. E. M. Nairn 101

pattern of differential subsidence does suggest that it occurred primarily during the Late Cretaceous,
whereas thermally-driven subsidence was the dominant mechanism during the Cenozoic.
These modifications to the McKenzie model are no more than first-order approximations, for our
data are incomplete and involve simplifying assumptions. As the age of the clastic sediments is so
poorly constrained, it is not possible to make an allowance for subsidence during their deposition, nor
even to determine whether such an allowance should be made.

CONCLUSIONS

The data presented in Paper 1 showed the development of a pattern of horsts and grabens during
the Late Cretaceous, with periodic differential movement along the bounding faults, which is
reflected in both the facies and the sedimentary thicknesses recorded. In the present work, we have
attempted to quantify these data according to a McKenzie model. The geologic data suggest that basin
extension was accomplished, not through a single stretching and necking event, but rather occurred at
different times throughout the development of a number of areas of thinning separated by areas of
reduced stretching. The data also suggest that, while a division into a period of initial, general,
subsidence followed by thermally-driven subsidence can be made, differential subsidence is not
restricted to this first phase. The absence of deep seismic lines precludes the tracing of faults
bounding the horst/grabens in depth to determine whether they become listric faults, or in establishing
the thickness of the brittle layer overlying ductile lithosphere.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is based on material provided by courtesy of AGOCO, and their help is gratefully
acknowledged. The work on the subsidence of the Sirte Basin benefited greatly from the help, advice
and suggestions of Dr S. Schamel, and was carried out as part of a doctoral thesis in the Earth
Sciences and Resources Institute, University of South Carolina.
102 Tectonic subsidence of the Sirte Basin, Libya

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