Basin Evolution of the Al Kufrah Basin in Southeast Libya

In the Early Palaeozoic the Al Kufrah Basin was part of a very wide, low relief platform, gently dipping to the north. Thick units of fluvial and shallow marine sandstones were deposited on this platform in Cambro-Ordovician times. A major glaciation in Late Ordovician led to a complex history of deep glacial erosion and deposition of high quality shallow marine sandstone reservoirs. The Tanezzuft Fm. was deposited during a rapid transgression in Early Silurian. Elevated Uranium contents within the Tanezzuft Fm. have recently been recorded in the Jabal Azbah region to the east. These “hot shales” represent the first potential source rock unit encountered in the Al Kufrah Basin. The “Top Silurian” and “Hercynian” uplift events led to significant erosion in the central and southern part of the basin. However, the most dramatic event in the basin evolution occurred in Mid - Late Cretaceous times when regional uplift resulted in around three kilometres of erosion in the Jabal Az Zalmah region to the north.