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Caium Sandstone Formation
Click to display on map of the Ancient World at:
Caium Sandstone Fm base reconstruction

Caium Sandstone Fm


Period: 
Cambrian

Age Interval: 
upper Cambrian


Province: 
Senegal Basin

Type Locality and Naming

Synonym: Caium Sandstone, Caium Fm

References: Brownfield and Charpentier, 2003

[Fig. 1. Generalized map of the central and southern parts of the Senegal Basin showing part of the Senegal Province, the Mauritania, Northern, and Casamance subbasins, the Mesozoic carbonate platform edge, the northern and southern salt basins, the Mauritanide Mountains, the Bové Basin, Deep Sea Drilling Project sites 367 and 368, the 2-second sediment isopach, and the onshore depth to basement isopachs (Brownfield and Charpentier, 2003)]

[Fig. 2: Generalized stratigraphic column for the Northern subbasin and the southern part of the Mauritania subbasins (Brownfield and Charpentier, 2003).]


Lithology and Thickness

The Caium Sandstone is part if the pre-rift units, and forms the transitional units from the underlying Cambrian shales of the Pirada and Cantari formations. It is made up of sandstones and is estimated to be about 400m thick (Brownfield and Charpentier, 2003)..


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Cantari Shale Fm (conformable)

Upper contact

Gabu Sandstone Fm (conformable)

Regional extent

Senegal Province, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, Northwest Africa


GeoJSON

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Fossils


Age 

upper Cambrian

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Paibian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.00

    Beginning date (Ma): 
497.00

    Ending stage: 
Tremadocian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
486.85

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Enam O. Obiosio, Solomon Joshua Avong, Henry Nasir Suleiman, Rebecca Bobick (and Wen Du), modified from Brownfield, M.E. and Charpentier, R.R., 2003. "Assessment of the Undiscovered Oil and Gas of the Senegal Province, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, Northwest Africa", U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2207-A, 1-26.