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Structures and petrography of the neoproterozoic Rey Bouba Greenstone Belt in the Northern Cameroon: Implications for deformational characterization

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Abstract

The mylonitic band of Rey Bouba Greenstone Belt (RBGB), oriented NE-SW that straddles between the Neoproterozoic batholite of the northern domain to the NW and the Adamawa-Yadé Paleoproterozoic domain to the SE, is a Neoproterozoic back-arc basin made of deformed volcanosedimentary rocks. A tectonic and microtectonic study of this basin was carried out under a petrographic and structural approach both in the field and in the laboratory. Structural analysis carried out in the study area allowed the identification of a complex four-phase D1–D4 polyphase deformation. The first three phases are ductile and the fourth essentially brittle. The D1 deformation phase, which is not very visible in the field, is characterized by a general flattening induced by a shortening oriented N-S in a pure shear regime leading to the development of S1 foliation and L1 mineral stretching line oriented E-W. The deformations D2 and D3, characteristics of sub-basins, are very intense and complex and implemented in two stages. The D2 deformation phase, essentially ubiquitous, is first a tangential tectonics associated with the formation of the composite S0/S2a/C2a surface and a single shear C2b of major direction NE-SW parallel to the Tcholliré-Banyo Shear Zone (TBSZ), C2b shear affecting the S2b foliation axial plane of the right P2b folds, synforms, and antiforms. NNE-SSW is the overall direction. D3 deformation also begins with the placement of the S0/S3a/C3a surface and the open folds P3a, then a simple shear, a translation in extensive speed materialized by the stretching lineation L3b, and ends with the ductilo-fragile deformation. The D4 deformation phase is represented by the syntectonic basic and acid veins oriented NE-SW and N-S to NNE-SSW, respectively, faults and breakages.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would especially like to thank Professor Fantong Yetoh Wilson and Anaba Fotze Quentin of the Institute for Geological and Mining Research (IGMR) for their willingness not only to translate but also to read and correct the English version of this article. They also thank the anonymous reviewers who criticized it with the aim of improving it.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Geological and Mining Research, B.P., 4110, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Alain François Mbanga

  2. Center for Geological and Mining Research, B.P. 333, Garoua, Cameroon

    Augustin Patrice Moussango Ibohn, Jean Paul Sep Nlomngan, Abakar Mahamat, Jacques Wassouo Wadjou, Yaya Fodoué, Jean Marcel Abaté Essi, Alifa Guedala Liou & Urbain Olivier Njel

  3. IRAD Nkolbisson, B.P. 2123, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Patrick Valerie Mounoumeck

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Mbanga, A.F., Moussango Ibohn, A.P., Sep Nlomngan, J.P. et al. Structures and petrography of the neoproterozoic Rey Bouba Greenstone Belt in the Northern Cameroon: Implications for deformational characterization. Arab J Geosci 16, 67 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-11115-0

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