See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228495812

Evidence for Late Ordovician glaciation of Al

Kufrah Basin, Libya
ARTICLE in JOURNAL OF AFRICAN EARTH SCIENCES MAY 2010
Impact Factor: 1.4 DOI: 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2010.04.001

CITATIONS

READS

121

2 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Daniel Le Heron
Royal Holloway, University of London
58 PUBLICATIONS 740 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE

All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate,

letting you access and read them immediately.

Available from: Daniel Le Heron

Retrieved on: 17 November 2015

Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of African Earth Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci

Evidence for Late Ordovician glaciation of Al Kufrah Basin, Libya

Daniel Paul Le Heron a,*, James Howard b
a
b

Department of Earth Sciences, Queens Building, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW200EX, United Kingdom
CASP, West Building, 181A Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB30DH, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 September 2009
Received in revised form 12 April 2010
Accepted 14 April 2010
Available online 24 April 2010
Keywords:
Glaciation
Ordovician
Ice sheet
Reservoir
North Africa
Al Kufrah Basin

a b s t r a c t
Fieldwork at the anks of Al Kufrah Basin, Libya, reveals that Late Ordovician ice sheets were present in
the eastern Sahara and that they extended northeastward toward Egypt. Evidence for grounded ice sheets
is preserved at the both the southeastern (Jabal Azbah) and northern (Jabal az-Zalmah) basin margins.
Characteristic soft-sediment deformation structures, including soft-sediment folds, small-scale faults
and striated pavements indicate subglacial shearing and the formation of glacial erosion surfaces. These
ndings support the presence of a Late Ordovician ice margin in the eastern Sahara and add vital new
constraints to reconstructions of the morphology of North African grounded ice sheets. Prior to our study,
there existed two plausible models on ice sheet geometry. The rst was that separate ice sheets namely
a north and west African ice sheet and an Arabian ice sheet extended over this part of western North
Gondwana. The second was that ice cover was continuous. The presence of a suite of subglacially-generated deformation structures adds considerable credence to the latter interpretation.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
This paper is concerned with evidence for glaciation within a
clastic succession of Late Ordovician age in Al Kufrah Basin, eastern
Libya (Fig. 1). The case for Late Ordovician glaciations in the Tassili
NAjjer on the AlgerianLibyan border is long since established
(e.g. Beuf et al., 1971), but in recent years, systematic studies have
been undertaken at the anks of other Saharan basins that have
spawned a considerable literature with more modern interpretations. For example, facies models and palaeogeographic summaries
of Ghienne et al. (2007) emphasised that the northward advance of
ice sheets peaked at a glacial maximum in the late Hirnantian (total
duration 3 Myr) and that up to ve advance-retreat cycles of a
large ice mass occurred in this short interval. More palaeo-glaciologically focussed research has attempted to carefully dene palaeo-ice
front positions across this area, positioning palaeo-ice streams at the
glacial maximum and the location of major meltwater conduits during ice sheet retreat (Le Heron and Craig, 2008). The most recent
studies based on both detailed outcrop and seismic reection data
(Le Heron, 2010) have given up-to-date palaeo-glaciological analyses of the Late Ordovician record in western Libya within the
Murzuq Basin. Thus far, papers have been published specically
dealing with the evidence for and nature of the Late Ordovician
glaciation in Al Kufrah Basin.
In recent years, concerted efforts have been made to unravel the
Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy of Al Kufrah Basin, and describing
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: d.leheron@es.rhul.ac.uk (D.P. Le Heron).
1464-343X/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2010.04.001

and interpreting putative Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits

within this succession has been a primary research objective. A
number of international oil companies have exploration commitments in this basin, providing the impetus for new data to be gathered. No oil or gas discoveries have yet been made. By analogy to
the stratigraphically and structurally comparable Murzuq Basin
in SW Libya (Davidson et al., 2000), Early Silurian shale of the Tannezuft Formation is suggested to be the main source rock interval
and underlying glaciogenic sandstones of the Mamuniyat Formation are the primary reservoir target (Lning et al., 1999). The results of a 1999 eld trip to the western Al Kufrah Basin, in Jabal
Eghei, were released, albeit only in part, within Ghnia et al.
(2008). These latter authors gured a soft-sediment striated pavement, interpreted to have been produced by subglacial erosion, but
no sections or supporting data were published in that paper. Aside
from this work, no evidence for glaciogenic processes has hitherto
been presented from Al Kufrah Basin in the international literature.
Extreme difculty of access has led to imaginative but ultimately
unsubstantiated papers that make stratigraphic predictions about
the probable presence of Late Ordovician glacial deposits in Al Kufrah Basin based on what is known from the neighbouring Murzuq
Basin, albeit without eldwork (Clark-Lowes, 2008).
As prospective hydrocarbon reservoirs in Al Kufrah Basin, an
understanding of the strength of evidence for glaciation, and its
impact on stratigraphic architectures, should be deemed essential.
By contrast to shallow marine successions deposited under nonglacial conditions which normally accumulate within orderly parasequence stacking patterns, glacially-related successions form
complex and lithologically heterogeneous successions that are

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

355

Fig. 1. Location of Al Kufrah Basin in southern Libya. Outcrops examined in the course of this eldwork are located in the northern (Jabal Az-Zalmah) and south-eastern (Jabal
Azbah) regions.

typied by dramatic lateral facies changes (e.g. Brodzikowski and

Van Loon, 1991). In glaciogenic reservoir successions, such as the
Late Ordovician examples of North Africa, the basin-scale arrangement of sedimentary successions is conditioned by such factors as
the geometry of ice sheet grounding lines, together with internal
ow heterogeneities within the ice sheets (e.g. ice streams) and
the processes of reworking during meltwater release (Le Heron
et al., 2009). At outcrop, the continuity of sandstone bodies, the
style of subglacial bedforms which are preserved and, in particular,
how glacially-related unconformities are manifested provide
crucial data for the characterisation of glaciogenic reservoirs in
the subsurface.
This paper aims to present new data on Late Ordovician deposits at both the south-eastern and northern ank of Al Kufrah Basin,
and consider what evidence, if any, may be used to support or refute the hypothesis that ice sheets were present in the eastern Sahara at this time. It is not the purpose of the present study to
deliver a comprehensive sedimentological analysis, but rather to
highlight the implications of the presence or absence of Late Ordovician glacial deposits in this area for (1) palaeogeographic reconstructions and (2) hydrocarbon exploration.

2. Study area
Al Kufrah Basin is a large (400,000 km2) intracontinental basin
in the eastern Sahara, within which substantive evidence for ancient (Late Ordovician) glaciation has never before been found.

Existing geological data is limited, as a result of an historical lack

of interest by the oil industry prior to the present attempts to explore the basin. General papers have been published on basin scale
structure and stratigraphy (Bellini et al., 1991), Palaeozoic sedimentology (Turner, 1991), and insights into the hydrocarbon potential of this basin are available (Lning et al., 1999). A joint
mapping project between Egyptian and Libyan authorities produced 1:200,000 geological maps for the southeastern part of the
basin (Sad et al., 2000), for which many formation names were
correlated from their type sections in western Libya. Palaeozoic
rocks of Neoproterozoic to Carboniferous age form the basin ll
(Bellini et al., 1991) and these crop out at four basin-anking
uplifts.
During the course of this study, Lower Palaeozoic outcrops were
visited in the Jabal Azbah region (SE basin ank) and in the Jabal
az-Zalmah region to the north of the basin (Fig. 1). In this latter
area, only regional-scale overview maps are currently available
(Persits et al., 1997). However, a 1:200,000 scale geological map
sheet is pending, a preview of which was recently published within
Sherif and Shagroni (2008). Therefore, as type sections or even type
areas have yet to be formally established, Cambrian through
Ordovician strata remain undifferentiated. Other outcrops of Lower
Palaeozoic rocks do occur at the other basin margin uplifts, namely
at the western basin anks in Jabal Eghei (Seilacher et al., 2002)
and in the Ennedi-Bourkou Range, Chad (Fig. 1). These latter
outcrops are out of bounds due to landmines and prevailing civil
unrest. By contrast, outcrops in Jabal Eghei were revisited with
CASP in 2008 and these will be the subject of a future paper.

356

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

3. Sedimentary successions forming the substrate to Late

Ordovician glacial deposits
The rock type(s) that constitute the bed to any ice sheet or glacier exert fundamental controls not only on the behaviour of that
ice mass but also its potential to produce the debris that is incorporated into glaciogenic sediments. Reviewing the mechanisms
of debris entrainment by ice sheets in the context of Neoproterozoic glaciations, Etienne et al. (2007) also emphasised the role of basal freeze-on as sediment transportation mechanism, a process
which has been argued as a possible mechanism to explain ice
stream shutdown in West Antarctica (Christoffersen and Tulaczyk,
2003). In the geological record, as in the case of modern-day ice
masses, it is probable that temperate and polythermal ice masses
were of major importance in glaciogenic sediment production
(e.g. Etienne et al., 2007). As it is established that porewater pressures at the ice-bed interface exert a major inuence on ice ow
rate (e.g. Boulton and Caban, 1995), it is very useful to consider
the pre-glacial sedimentary succession in Al Kufrah Basin.
In eastern Libya, as over much of the Saharan platform, Late
Ordovician glaciogenic deposits of the Mamuniyat Formation rest

disconformably to unconformably upon a succession of shallow

marine to uvial sandstones (Turner, 1991) that we assign to the
Haouaz Formation (Fig. 2). At the SE ank of Al Kufrah Basin, in
the Jabal Azbah region (Fig. 1), the Cambro-Ordovician succession
was differentiated by Sad et al. (2000) who provided a differing
interpretation. These workers proposed a bipartite CambroOrdovician stratigraphy that comprised the Hassouna Formation
(Cambrian) overlain by the Mamuniyat Formation (Late Ordovician). No substantiation in terms of age was provided for the
Hassouna Formation, the term being extrapolated from a type area
on Jabal Hassouna in the Murzuq Basin. Subsequent workers (e.g.
Lning et al., 1999) recognised ichnofauna of an Ordovician afnity
in the pre-glacial strata, and hence we prefer the term Haouaz Formation for these deposits. It should be noted that much relies on
the chronostratigraphic application of trace fossil analyses and
subsequent studies elsewhere in southern Libya have contended
that Cruziana trace fossils are age signicant (Seilacher et al.,
2002).
From the perspective of a palaeo-glaciologist, the name and age
of the strata underlying the Mamuniyat Formation should be of
little practical signicance and of minimal concern in this paper.

Fig. 2. Stratigraphic context of Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits and the Phanerozoic ll of Al Kufrah Basin, modied after Le Heron et al. (2009).

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

357

The rheology of these deposits as a subglacial substrate and their

composition as a sediment source for the glaciogenic deposits
themselves is much more important. Both the Hassouna and
Haouaz formations, at their respective type sections, comprise several hundred metres of alternating uvial through shallow marine,
multi-storey sandstone successions (Hallett, 2004). In the type area
for both formations, thickly bedded, trough and planar crossstratied sandstones dominate, Skolithus-burrowed horizons are
signicant, and sandstones are separated by occasional siltstones
epek, 1980; Ramos et al., 2006). Petrographically and
(c.f. C
architecturally, therefore, there is little to differentiate them, and
their inuence on Late Ordovician ice sheet dynamics is likely to
have been similar.
Sandstones beneath the Mamuniyat Formation in Al Kufrah
Basin display very similar sedimentological characteristics to those
in the Murzuq Basin. For instance, in our Jabal Azbah study area
(Fig. 1), sandstones beneath the Mamuniyat Formation probably
reach at least 300 m thick (Sad et al., 2000) and siltstone intercalations are more common in the upper part of the succession. By
comparison, in Jabal az-Zalmah, (Fig. 1), a similarly thick succession (at least 200 m) is observed for the Haouaz Formation where
ne to medium grained sandstone with rare siltstone intercalations forms the subglacial substrate. In recently published work,
both the Hassouna and overlying Haouaz formations have been
recognised in this region, which are dominated by medium to
ne-grained cross-bedded sandstones with subordinate siltstone
intervals (Sherif and Shagroni, 2008).
4. Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits and glacially-associated
landforms
4.1. The glacial record in Jabal Azbah
4.1.1. Striated surfaces and outburst deposits: description
Late Ordovician glacial sediments usually rest sub-horizontally
upon the pre-glacial Hassouna Formation in the Jabal Azbah region
(Fig. 2A). The glaciogenic succession largely comprises white,
thickly bedded, ne-grained sandstone (Fig. 3), and contains at
discontinuities (Fig. 4A). Megaripples reaching 2 m amplitude,
and wavelengths of 46 m form the most common facies (Figs. 3
and 4B). Planar-bedded sandstones are also important. These
sandstones are cut by dewatering structures, and preserve ame
structures. The at discontinuities that punctuate the succession
are overlain by maroon, 10 cm thick, very ne-grained sandstone
units (Fig. 3). The discontinuities themselves display a well developed patina/ ferruginous crust (Fig. 3 and 1 m, 22 m, 39 m, 41 m).
At two of these intervals (22 m and 41 m on the measured section),
strikingly parallel shallow grooves and ridges are preserved on the
top surface of these units (Figs. 3 and 4EG). These linear features
are oriented 346NW (lower occurrence) and 005N (upper
occurrence).
4.1.2. Striated surfaces and outburst deposits: interpretation
The preservation of large-scale megaripples within the white
sandstone, together with their thickly bedded nature, implies that
they were deposited during a sustained ow under conditions of
high sediment bed load such as a glacial outburst ood or jkulhlaup (Duller et al., 2008). Their close association with planar-bedded sandstones implies that these latter facies were deposited
during upper ow regimes when current velocities were too high
to allow the development of 3D bedforms. High rates of sediment
supply and rapid deposition are also supported by the presence of
indications of sheet dewatering and ame structures. The geometry of the linear ridges and grooves noted from two maroon sandstone horizons are strikingly similar to soft-sediment-striated

Fig. 3. Sedimentary log of Late Ordovician glacial deposits in Jabal Azbah, SE ank
of Al Kufrah Basin. Note positions of sedimentary facies photographs shown on
Fig. 4. Composite log from 2251.7520 N 2424.0950 E (base of section, wadi oor) to
2251.9450 N 2424.0560 E (top of section).

358

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

Fig. 4. Sandstones bearing striated surfaces in Jabal Azbah. (A) General view of sediment-striated surface (arrowed) separating parallel-laminated sandstones beneath from
megaripple-bearing sands above. Note planar nature of the surface. Sandstones beneath the surface are not affected by any type of soft-sediment deformation. Scale is given
by 15 cm long notebook (circled). (B) A megaripple above the striated surface shown in A; see text for interpretation. (C) Ferruginous patina/crust, characteristic of the softsediment-striated surface. (D) Regionally planar character of striated surfaces is typical in Jabal Azbah. Note people for scale. (EG) Photographs of the same striated surface
taken from different perspectives, showing mm-scale ridges and grooves characteristic of identical surfaces elsewhere in North Africa (e.g. Le Heron et al., 2005). Photographs
taken between 2551.9450 N 2424.0560 E and 2251.7520 N 2424.0950 E.

surfaces from areas affected by glacial erosion by Late Ordovician

ice sheets across other areas of North Africa (c.f. Deynoux and Ghienne, 2004; Le Heron et al., 2005). Therefore, by analogy with those
described elsewhere on the Saharan platform, these structures are
interpreted to reect shearing beneath an ice sheet. Whilst striated
surfaces were recently reported from the western Al Kufrah Basin
in Jabal Eghei, (Ghnia et al., 2008), the description of these struc-

tures in Jabal Azbah appears to provide the rst compelling

evidence for glaciation in the eastern Sahara.
4.1.3. Multi-storey sandstones unaffected by striations: description
In other parts of Jabal Azbah, a thick succession (>80 m) of uninterrupted sandstone occurs above a high relief (710 m) unconformity (Fig. 5), which separates bioturbated pre-glacial deposits

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

below from Late Ordovician glacial sediments above. In contrast to

strata discussed above, this succession is not punctuated at intervals by red-weathering, striated surfaces. Instead, the sandstone
succession comprises: (1) structureless coarse-grained, rip-up clast
bearing sandstones overlain by (2) 55 m of massive deposits organised into stacked metre-scale lenticular units passing gradationally
upward into (3) parallel laminated sandstone. These rocks are
capped by a trough cross-bedded, coarse grained sandstone to
granular conglomerate, that are in turn truncated by a sharp surface, above which a 10 m thick succession of maroon and grey silty
shales is preserved (Fig. 5). These latter deposits belong to the Tannezuft Formation, which is attributed an Early Silurian age (Said
et al., 2000).
4.1.4. Multi-storey sandstones unaffected by striations: interpretation
The high relief unconformity at the base of the succession is
interpreted as an erosion surface cut either by ice or meltwater.

Fig. 5. Sandstones devoid of striated surfaces in Jabal Azbah (see Fig. 3 for legend).
The topmost part of this measured section contains Lower Silurian mudrocks of the
Tannezuft Formation (Said et al., 2000). Location: 2311.3110 N 2436.8920 E.

359

Given the occurrence of soft-sediment-striated surfaces in neighbouring sections, a subglacially sculpted unconformity is the most
plausible interpretation. Given the lack of evidence for soft-sediment deformation structures within overlying sandstones that
might point to a subglacial origin (e.g. Van der Wateren et al.,
2000), the structureless, mud-chip bearing sandstone above the
basal surface is interpreted as ice-proximal, proglacial outwash
deposits. The structureless nature of this deposit might imply debris ow processes typical of efux near a subglacial conduit (Powell
and Cooper, 2002). The substantial thickness (55 m) of poorly-bedded, massive sandstone above these basal deposits is interpreted to
record rapid sediment accumulation at the ice margin, whilst the
channels/scours that punctuate this succession are indicative of
cannibalisation of underlying deposits by successive ows. Therefore, the absence of striations in such multi-storey sandstones is
attributed to cannibalisation and reworking of the substrate by
successive ows. The poorly structured, lithologically monotonous
nature of these ice-marginal deposits stands in contrast to the
architecture of grounding line moraines in modern high latitude

Fig. 6. Sedimentary log of Late Ordovician glacial deposits in Jabal az-Zalmah,

northern outcrop of Al Kufra Basin (see Fig. 3 for legend). Note the positions of
sedimentary facies photographs shown on Fig. 7. Note, also, the exceptionally thin
nature of this succession (6 m), compared to an estimated 500 m total thickness of
the underlying, previously undifferentiated Cambro-Ordovician succession (Fig. 2A;
Bellini et al., 1991).

360

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

settings, which commonly comprise a gravelly, often glaciotectonized core that passes laterally into poorly sorted tills and bergstone
diamict deposits (Powell and Cooper, 2002).
The cross-bedded sandstone bed at the top of the succession is
stratigraphically sandwiched between the ice-proximal, glaciogenic underow deposits and the Tannezuft Formation above. Given
the generally accepted interpretation for the Tannezuft Formation
as a post-glacial, transgressive deposit (Lning et al., 1999, 2000),
the cross-bedded sandstone interval may be interpreted as subaqueous bars that developed during post-glacial transgression:
similar bar systems are widely reported at a similar stratigraphic
position from across North Africa, including in the Anti Atlas of
Morocco (Le Heron, 2007).
4.2. The glacial record in Jabal az-Zalmah
As noted above, evidence for Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits in the northern Al Kufrah Basin has never actively been sought,
and the Cambro-Ordovician succession within which they occur
has only been examined from a regional mapping perspective (Sherif and Shagroni, 2008). Consequently, the presence of glaciogenic
deposits Jabal az-Zalmah provides a reasonable stratigraphic x
(Late Ordovician) within an otherwise unconstrained interval
spanning about 100 Myr of Earths history (i.e. Cambrian through
end Ordovician). Below, we describe and interpret sedimentary
rocks believed to have been deposited during the Late Ordovician
glaciation at two localities. These are considered separately below
as they contain different scales of soft-sediment deformation structures that are interpreted to have developed by subglacial deformation processes.
4.2.1. Small-scale glaciotectonic deformation structures: description
In central Jabal az-Zalmah, a thin (6 m) succession of deformed
sandstones and siltstones rests sharply upon undeformed white,

quartzitic and ne-grained sandstone (Fig. 6). The upper surface

of this sandstone is undulose and polished (Figs. 6 and 7A). The
surface shows a striated stoss side and an irregular, scalloped lee
face (Figs. 6 and 7A). The striations trend 016. Undulations on this
surface are onlapped by deformed, 2 m thick red, micaceous shale
(Fig. 6), in turn capped by intensely folded current ripple-cross
laminated sandstone (Figs. 6 and 7B). The folds are crosscut by
small-scale faults (Fig. 7C). At the top of this succession, an upper
sandstone bed displays wave ripples that show small Planolites
burrows (Fig. 7D). These occur directly below poorly exposed,
green weathering, laminated siltstone for which an Early Silurian
age has previously been established (Lning et al., 1999).
4.2.2. Small-scale glaciotectonic deformation structures: interpretation
In central Jabal az-Zalmah, the glacially-related strata are distinguished from pre-glacial deposits on the basis of (1) a characteristic assemblage of soft-sediment deformation structures within
them and (2) the absence of ubiquitous Skolithus burrows found
in underlying deposits. The undulose, striation-bearing surface is
interpreted as an ice-cut glacial erosion surface. Like comparable
surfaces in Jabal Azbah, this surface strongly implies the passage
of a grounded ice sheet. Therefore, the NE orientation of the striae
indicates ow of ice toward Egypt. The preservation of a thin shale
unit/bed above this glacial erosion surface is unusual when compared to equivalent glacial successions in NW Africa where clastpoor diamictites or conglomerates typically occur above striated
surfaces (Le Heron et al., 2009). These diamictites record ice-proximal outwash. In contrast, the shale may imply interglacial (or nonglacial) still water sedimentation, reecting quiescent deposition
between moraine banks at the grounding line (e.g. Powell and Cooper, 2002). The small faults and folds that affect the ne-grained
sandstones above the shale are well documented in Late Ordovician glacial deposits elsewhere (Deynoux and Ghienne, 2004; Le
Heron et al., 2005), where this suite of structures implies a range

Fig. 7. Glaciogenic deposits, Jabal az-Zalmah. For stratigraphic positions, refer to Fig. 8. (A) Polished striated surface. Interpreted direction of ice movement shown by arrow.
Note that this outcrop displays a rough lee slope downglacier, interpreted as a topography formed by ice-pluck processes. (B) Tight, asymmetric antiform within rippled
sandstone. Their generally convoluted nature, the absence of a consistent vergence to these folds, and the lack of deformation in overlying Silurian mudrocks are three strong
indicators that these features formed in unconsolidated sediment. (C) Step fractures with millimetre to centimetre throws on microfaults crosscut the folds shown in B.
(D) Horizontal surface burrows of the Planolites type, immediately beneath Lower Silurian mudrocks of the Tannezuft Formation. Outcrop: 2548.5550 N 2332.0870 E.

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

361

Fig. 8. Deformation structures within the pre-glacial substrate (undifferentiated Cambro-Ordovician sandstones, bearing Skolithus burrows) in Jabal az-Zalmah. The
deformation structures are capped sharply by a surface bearing soft-sediment striations. These structures are interpreted to record the deformation of unconsolidated
sediment. Their restriction, both laterally and to this stratigraphic level, supports this interpretation. The short wavelength of the box folds (<30 m), separated by up to 300 m
of relatively undeformed strata, suggest that they may have formed as large subglacial grooves (or mega-scale glacial lineations) beneath Late Ordovician ice sheets prior to
deposition of the Mamuniyat Formation. Location: 2550.0000 N 2329.3820 E.

of subglacial deformation processes. The folds are suggestive of

ductile deformation under warm-based ice, whereas the step-fractures that crosscut them are interpreted to reect small-scale
brittle failure during transition to cold-based ice conditions. The
occurrence of bioturbated sandstones on the topmost surface of
the Mamuniyat Formation is well reported from both the western
and northern anks of the Murzuq Basin (Le Heron et al., 2006) and
hence the Planolites burrows are interpreted to record environmental amelioration upon deglaciation of Al Kufrah Basin prior to deposition of the Tannezuft Formation.
4.2.3. Mega-scale glacial lineations: description
Over much of the Jabal az-Zalmah range, Cambro-Ordovician
pre-glacial strata are at-lying and largely undeformed. Locally,
however, the heavily bioturbated (Skolithus-bearing) pre-glacial
substrate is affected by narrow wavelength (1200 m), low amplitude (<50 m), synclinal box folds that are separated from each
other by 300 m of horizontal strata (Fig. 8). No truncation surfaces
within these deformed strata are observed. The crestlines of these
folds can also be traced over 3 km between individual outcrops,
indicating that they are linear features with a general ENE-WSW
trend, i.e. in the same trend as the striated surfaces observed elsewhere. In plan view, when viewed on satellite imagery, the crestline of the folds are slightly sinuous and their distribution was
previously mapped across the entirety of Jabal az-Zalmah (white
ornament in Fig. 6 of Le Heron and Craig, 2008). The top surface
of the folded strata comprises blue-black weathering sandstone,
bearing fragments of sandstone containing soft-sediment striae
(Fig. 8). The rocks directly onlapping this surface are not exposed
but form the lower part of a 50 m thick succession which comprises ne to medium-grained cross-bedded sandstones at the
top, in association with massive sandstone beds, and mud-chip
conglomerates. These latter rocks show no signs of deformation.
4.2.4. Mega-scale glacial lineations: interpretation
A tectonic origin for the elongate, synclinal box folds in the preglacial substrate is unlikely because of the limited lateral and

stratigraphic extent of these features. The morphology of their

upper surfaces resembles grooves produced by grounding icebergs
(e.g. Woodsworth-Lynas and Dowdeswell, 1994) or by corrugations that developed at the base of a grounded ice mass. However,
this analogue cannot be directly applied because despite the occurrence of striated sandstones above these features, there is no evidence for an angular truncation on the upper surface of the folds.
The genesis of such folds clearly requires an internal detachment
at a certain depth (possibly tens of metres) beneath the surface
to account for deformation without faulting on the anks of the
grooves. The ubiquitous Skolithus burrows developed within the
pre-glacial substrate indicate the colonisation of a shallow water
substrate (Bromley, 1996) and so a grounded ice mass origin is favoured. A subglacial origin for these structures is also supported by
the occurrence of fragmented examples of soft-sediment striated
pavement on the surface of the folds. The overall interpretation
of these features as mega-scale lineations, as proposed by Le Heron
and Craig (2008), is thus supported by these new data. The clastic
succession overlying these deformation features is thus interpreted
as ice-proximal outwash, within which mud-chip conglomerates,
trough-cross bedding and current rippled sandstones reect a
range of gravity ow, moderate energy traction currents, and waning ow respectively (e.g. Powell, 1990).
5. Discussion
5.1. Palaeogeographic implications
Accurate reconstruction of an ancient ice sheet includes documenting the lateral extent of the ice front parallel to the ice margin,
and its maximum basinward extent. Such reconstruction hinges
very heavily on adequate geographic distribution of data, with
good data coverage producing more reliable scientic interpretations. The data presented here enable us to demonstrate the presence of Late Ordovician grounded ice sheets in northeast Africa.
An understanding the geometry of Late Ordovician ice sheets in
North Africa is critical for two reasons. Firstly, as potential

362

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

glaciogenic reservoirs in frontier basins such as Al Kufrah, locating

the position of the palaeo-ice margin during the Late Ordovician
will facilitate better prediction of the location of sand depocentres
in exploration areas. Furthermore, although recent work has suggested that Late Ordovician ice sheets in North Gondwana were
probably separate entities in the Sahara, South Africa and South
America (Le Heron and Dowdeswell, 2009), the precise geometry

of the Saharan ice sheet itself deserves further scrutiny. Prior to

the availability of data from Al Kufrah Basin, two scenarios were
plausible for ice sheet conguration (Fig. 9A and B). The rst,
smaller scale scenario (Fig. 9A) shows an ice sheet extending west
to east from Morocco to centre-west Libya: a scenario that is most
faithful to published data. No published directional data collected
at outcrop pointed to growth of ice sheets northeast or east

Fig. 9. Two scenarios for the conguration of Late Ordovician ice sheets in North and West Africa, and in the Arabian Peninsula. Map A illustrates a small ice sheet scenario
whereby separate and disconnected ice sheets populate the western and eastern Sahara. Map B, by contrast, illustrates a continuous ice sheet: a hypothesis that is supported
by discovery of Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits in Jabal Azbah and Jabal az-Zalmah.

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

toward eastern Libya and Egypt. Furthermore, previous isopach

mapping suggested that Egypt was substantially elevated during
the Lower Palaeozoic, and that a pronounced NWSE striking
structure the Aweinat-Calanscio Uplift exerted a strong
control on sedimentation (Schandelmeier and Reynolds, 1997;
Klitzsch, 2000). Thus, the purported Aweinat-Calanscio Uplift
would have made an excellent ice divide, potentially separating
ice sheets in North Africa and Arabia.
In contrast, an alternative interpretation shows a continuous ice
front extending into eastern North Africa (Fig. 9B), with some
workers extending this ice sheet as far east as Saudi Arabia (Vaslet,
1990; followed by Ghienne (2003), and then Le Heron et al.
(2004)). However, such reconstructions have not hitherto been
founded on concrete scientic data, but are rather based on extrapolation across signicant data gaps. Such models show a continuous ice front over at least 2500 km between the easternmost
data point in North Africa (the Gargaf Arch, Libya: Le Heron
et al., 2004) and the westernmost data point in the Arabian region
(eastern ank of the Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia: Clark-Lowes,
2005). These data support recent palaeogeographic reconstructions
(Le Heron and Craig, 2008) and it is estimated that the newly
discovered glaciated region (Fig. 9B) covered an area of some
5 million km2.
5.2. Glaciological setting and its impact on the sedimentary record
In this study, we note clear evidence for two glacial erosion surfaces, and hence at least two glacial cycles, in both the Jabal Azbah
and Jabal az-Zalmah regions. In the former region, striae appear on
two surfaces characterised by a distinctive ferruginous crust/patina, but another two, non-striated ferruginous surfaces also appear
locally at the base and very top of the succession (Fig. 3). These
additional surfaces are ambiguous: they could be glacially cut,
but could simply reect the precipitation of iron oxides between
beds.
Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits in Al Kufrah Basin, like
those elsewhere in North Africa, are dominated by ne to medium-grained, compositionally mature sandstones. However, texturally immature deposits are characteristic of other ancient
glacial records: diamictites greatly outnumber sandstones in both
Proterozoic and Carboniferous-Permian global records of glaciation
(see Eyles, 1993). The reasons for this obvious anomaly have never
been properly addressed in the Ordovician record. However, it
seems likely that the relatively high proportion of sand to mud
simply reects the lack of grain size variation in the source area
of this sediment and sandy composition of the pre-glacial substrate
(i.e. older Cambrian and Ordovician sandstone-dominated sediments). Therefore, the sedimentary record of glaciation in the
Ordovician is unusual because only sand-dominated sediments
were subject to ice sheet erosion, explaining the rarity of poorly
sorted deposits.
5.3. Implications for petroleum exploration
Across North Africa, Late Ordovician glaciogenic sediments are
key reservoirs within a petroleum system that is sourced and
sealed by Lower Silurian shales (Lning et al., 2000). This paper
has revealed that like their counterparts in the Murzuq Basin of
western Libya (Le Heron et al., 2006), Late Ordovician glaciogenic
deposits are heterogeneous. Nevertheless, if Al Kufrah Basin
proves to be petroliferous, the occurrence of thick successions
of multistorey sandstones in the Jabal Azbah region raises the
prospect of thick net pays within age equivalent strata in the
subsurface. Residual topography left following deglaciation of
North Africa during Hirnantian to Early Silurian transgression is
believed to have promoted anoxia, ponding organically rich

363

shales in intra-shelf basins during the earliest Silurian (Lning

et al., 2000). Rhuddanian hot shales are the principal source
rocks within both the Murzuq and Ghadames basins (Davidson
et al., 2000) and a serious candidate for oil generation in Al Kufrah Basin (Lning et al., 1999). The intimate relationship between
glaciation and source rock distribution have long been known to
the petroleum industry, but the origins of this topography have
been readily interpreted as glacial in origin without further
investigation (Le Heron et al., 2009). Understanding the true nature of this residual topography is critical for accurately predicting
of source rock distribution in basins like Al Kufrah. The discovery
of Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits in this basin raises the
strong possibility that topographically-controlled anoxia in
Silurian depocentres might well have occurred, greatly raising
the prospects for Silurian hydrocarbon source rock presence in
this area.
6. Conclusions
 Sedimentological data demonstrate that Al Kufrah Basin was
glacierised by Late Ordovician ice sheets. In Jabal Azbah, at
the basins SE margin, the glacially-related sediments are dominantly sandy and contain both the record of ice advance (softsediment-striated surfaces) and the signature of glacial outburst
(climbing megaripples and multi-storey sandstones unaffected
by striations).
 At Jabal az-Zalmah, at the northern basin margin, styles of softsediment deformation occur at all scales from striated surfaces
to mega-scale glacial lineations recording the north-eastward
passage of ice streams. Soft-sediment deformation of the substrate beneath fast-owing ice produced a series of linear box
folds.
 Late Ordovician ice sheets probably formed a continuous ice
cover over North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Evidence
of glacially-related deposits in the Mamuniyat Formation point
to the presence of ice sheets in Al Kufrah Basin, but more importantly the trend of ice ow indicators indicate ow toward
Egypt rather than away from a postulated palaeohigh that has
previously been argued to have separated the North Africa
and Arabian regions (Klitzsch, 2000).
 In all areas of North Africa where organically enriched, Early
Silurian shales occur, Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits occur
beneath, potentially because anoxia was promoted in the
restricted basins of the Late Ordovician paraglacial topography
(Lning et al., 2000). Consequently, the presence of Late Ordovician glaciogenic deposits in Al Kufrah Basin may improve the
hydrocarbon prospectivity of this remote basin.

Acknowledgements
Data in this paper were collected during a joint CASP-Libyan
Petroleum Institute eld season in MarchApril 2006. We wish to
thank the oil industry consortium members sponsoring the Kufra
Basin Project Phase I. The authors wish to express personal thanks
to Ayaid Alhassi of AGOCO for his help in the eld. We also wish to
acknowledge Dr Steve Vincent, Dr Andy Whitham and Dr Rob Scott
in CASP for their thoughts on an earlier version of the manuscript.
Mr Faraj Said (President of the ESSL: Earth Science Society of Libya), Mr Yousef Abutarruma (Secretary of the ESSL), and Mr Ahmed
I. Asbali (Exploration Advisor, Agoco) are thanked for their scientic support and guidance for the project work in Libya. We also
would like to thank the logistics team, provided by Mr Bashir Grenat, for assistance in the eld. The authors wish to thank Professor
Thilo Bechstdt and Dr Robert Bussert for their helpful reviews.

364

D.P. Le Heron, J. Howard / Journal of African Earth Sciences 58 (2010) 354364

References
Bellini, E., Giori, I., Ashuri, O., Benelli, F., 1991. Geology of Al Kufrah Basin, Libya. In:
Salem, M.J., Sbeta, A.M., Bakbak, M.R. (Eds.), The Geology of Libya, vol. 6.
Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 21552184.
Beuf, S., Biju-Duval, B., de Charpal, O., Rognon, P., Gariel, O., Bennacef, A., 1971. Les
Gres du Palaeozoique inferieur au Sahara. Editions Technip, Paris. 464p.
Boulton, G.S., Caban, P.G., 1995. Groundwater ow beneath ice sheets part II: its
impact on glaciotectonics and moraine formation. Quaternary Science Reviews
14, 563587.
Brodzikowski, K., Van Loon, T., 1991. Glacigenic Sediments. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
674p.
Bromley, R.G., 1996. Trace Fossils: Biology, Taphonomy and Applications, Second ed.
Taylor and Francis. 384p.
epek, P., 1980. The sedimentology and facies development of the hasawnah
C
formation in libya. In: Salem, M.J., Busrewil, M.T. (Eds.), Second Symposium on
the Geology of Libya, vol. 2. Academic Press, London, pp. 375382.
Christoffersen, P., Tulaczyk, S., 2003. Response of subglacial sediments to basal
freeze-on: I. Theory and comparison to observations from beneath the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth 108, 2222.
Clark-Lowes, D.D., 2005. Arabian glacial deposits: recognition of palaeovalleys
within the Upper Ordovician Sarah Formation, Al Qasim district, Saudi Arabia.
Proceedings of the Geologists Association 116, 331347.
Clark-Lowes, D.D., 2008. Depositional model for the distribution of Silurian Hot
Shale and Mamuniyat reservoir facies in the Al Kufrah Basin. In: Salem, M.J., ElHawat, A.S. (Eds.), The Geology of East Libya, vol. 1. Gutenberg Press, Malta, pp.
179186.
Davidson, L., Beswetherick, S., Craig, J., Eales, M., Fisher, A., Himmali, A., Jho, J.,
Mejrab, B., Smart, J., 2000. The structure, stratigraphy and petroleum geology of
the Murzuq Basin, southwest Libya. In: Sola, M.A., Worsley, D. (Eds.), Geological
Exploration of the Murzuq Basin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 295320.
Deynoux, M., Ghienne, J.-F., 2004. Late Ordovician glacial pavements revisited a
reappraisal of the origin of striated surfaces. Terra Nova 16, 95101.
Duller, R., Mountney, N.P., Russell, A.J., Cassidy, N.C., 2008. Architectural analysis of
a volcaniclastic jkulhlaup deposit, southern Iceland: sedimentary evidence for
supercritical ow. Sedimentology 55, 939964.
Etienne, J.L., Allen, P.A., Rieu, R., Le Guerrou, E., 2007. Neoproterozoic glaciated
basins: a critical review of the Snowball Earth hypothesis by comparison with
Phanerozoic glaciations. In: Hambrey, M.J., Christofferson, P., Glasser, N.F.,
Hubbard, B. (Eds.), Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products. International
Association of Sedimentologists, pp. 343399 (Special Publications 39).
Eyles, N., 1993. Earths glacial record and its tectonic setting. Earth Science Reviews
35, 1248.
Ghienne, J.-F., 2003. Late Ordovician sedimentary environments, glacial cycles, and
post-glacial transgression in the Taoudeni Basin, West Africa. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 189, 117145.
Ghienne, J-F., Le Heron, D.P., Moreau, J., Deynoux, M., 2007. The Late Ordovician
glacial sedimentary system of the West Gondwana platform. In: Hambrey, M.J.,
Christofferson, P., Glasser, N.F., Hubbard, B. (Eds.), Glacial Sedimentary
Processes and Products. International Association of Sedimentologists, pp.
295319 (Special Publication 39).
Ghnia, S., Lning, S., Martin, M., 2008. Genetic stratigraphy of Cambro-Ordovician
strata in Al Kufrah and Murzuq Basins. In: Salem, M.J., El-Hawat, A.S. (Eds.), The
Geology of East Libya, vol. I. Gutenberg Press, Malta, pp. 311336.
Hallett, D., 2004. Petroleum Geology of Libya (Second Impression). Elsevier,
Amsterdam. 503p.
Klitzsch, E., 2000. The structural development of the Murzuq and Kufra basins
signicance for oil and mineral exploration. In: Sola, M.A., Worsley, D. (Eds.),
Geological Exploration of the Murzuq Basin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 143150.
Le Heron, D.P., 2007. Late Ordovician glacial record of the Anti Atlas, Morocco.
Sedimentary Geology 201, 93110.
Le Heron, D.P., 2010. Interpretation of Late Ordovician glaciogenic reservoirs from
3D seismic data: an example from the Murzuq Basin, Libya. Geological
Magazine 147, 2841.
Le Heron, D., Sutcliffe, O., Bourgig, K., Craig, J., Visentin, C., Whittington, R., 2004.
Sedimentary architecture of Upper Ordovician tunnel valleys, Gargaf Arch,

Libya: implications for the genesis of a hydrocarbon reservoir. GeoArabia 9,

137160.
Le Heron, D.P., Sutcliffe, O.E., Whittington, R.J., Craig, J., 2005. The origins of glacially
related soft-sediment deformation structures in Upper Ordovician glaciogenic
rocks: implication for ice sheet dynamics. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology 218, 75103.
Le Heron, D.P., Craig, J., 2008. First order reconstructions of a Late Ordovician
Saharan ice sheet. Journal of the Geological Society, London 165, 1929.
Le Heron, D.P., Dowdeswell, J.A., 2009. Calculating ice volumes and ice ux to
constrain the dimensions of a 440 Ma North African ice sheet. Journal of the
Geological Society, London 166, 277281.
Le Heron, D.P., Craig, J., Sutcliffe, O.E., Whittington, R., 2006. Glaciogenic reservoir
heterogeneity: an example from the Late Ordovician of the Murzuq Basin, SW
Libya. Marine and Petroleum Geology 23, 655677.
Le Heron, D.P., Craig, J., Etienne, J.L., 2009. Ancient glaciations and hydrocarbon
accumulations in North Africa and the Middle East. Earth Science Reviews 93,
4776.
Lning, S., Craig, J., Fitches, B., Mayouf, J., Busrewil, A., El Dieb, M., Gammudi, A.,
Loydell, D., McIlroy, D., 1999. Re-evaluation of the petroleum potential of the
Kufra Basin (SE Libya NE Chad) does the source rock barrier fall? Marine and
Petroleum Geology 16, 693718.
Lning, S., Craig, J., Loydell, D.K., Storch, P., Fitches, B., 2000. Lower Silurian hot
shales in Northern Africa and Arabia: regional distribution and depositional
model. Earth Science Reviews 49, 121200.
Persits, F.M., Ahlbrandt, T.S., Tuttle, M., Charpentier, R.R., Browneld, M.E.,
Takahashi, K., 1997. Maps showing geology, oil and gas elds and geological
provinces of Africa. USGS Open File Report, 97-470-A (CD data report).
Powell, R.D., 1990. Glacimarine processes at grounding-line fans and their growth
to ice contact deltas. In: Dowdeswell, J.A., Scourse, J.D. (Eds.), Glacimarine
Environments: Processes and Sediments, vol. 53. Geological Society Special
Publication, pp. 5373.
Powell, R.D., Cooper, J.M., 2002. A glacial sequence stratigraphic model for
temperate, glaciated continental shelves. In: Dowdeswell, J.A., Cofaigh, C.
(Eds.), Glacier-inuenced Sedimentation on High-latitude Continental Margins.
Geological Society, London, pp. 215244 (Special Publication 203).
Ramos, E., Marzo, M., de Gibert, J., Tawengi, K.S., Khoja, K.A., Bolatti, N.D., 2006.
Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the middle ordovician hawaz formation.
AAPG Bulletin 90, 13091336.
Sad, M.M., Oweiss, K.A., Mehidi, B.O., 2000. Jabal Arkenu sheet: explanatory
booklet. Joint Geological Mapping Project between the Egyptian Geological
Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA) and the Industrial Research Centre (IRC)
of Libya. Cairo, 117p.
Schandelmeier, H., Reynolds, P.O. (Eds.), 1997. PalaeogeographicPalaeotectonic
Atlas of North-Eastern Africa, Arabia, and adjacent areas. Balkema, Rotterdam.
Seilacher, A., Lning, S., Martin, M.A., Klitzsch, E., Khoja, A., Craig, J., 2002.
Ichnostratigraphic correlation of Lower Palaeozoic clastics in the Kufra Basin
(SE Libya). Lethaia 35, 257262.
Sherif, A.A., Shagroni, Y.A., 2008. Stratigraphy and cyclic sedimentation for a shear
system in Jabal az-Zalmah, Al Kufrah Basin, Libya. In: Salem, M.J., Oun, K.M.,
Essed, A.S. (Eds.), The Geology of East Libya, vol. 4. Gutenberg Press, Malta, pp.
201237.
Turner, B.R., 1991. Palaeozoic deltaic sedimentation in the southeastern part of Al
Kufrah Basin, Libya. In: Salem, M.J., Belaid, M.N. (Eds.), The Geology of Libya, vol.
5. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 17131726.
Van der Wateren, F.M., Kluiving, S.J., Bartek, L.R., 2000. Kinematic indicators of
subglacial shearing. In: Maltman, A.J., Hubbard, B., Hambrey, M.J. (Eds.),
Deformation of Glacial Materials. Geological Society, London, pp. 259278
(Special Publication 176).
Vaslet, D., 1990. Upper Ordovician glacial deposits in Saudi Arabia. Episodes 13,
147161.
Woodsworth-Lynas, C.M.T., Dowdeswell, J.A., 1994. Soft-sediment striated surfaces
and massive diamicton facies associations produced by oating ice. In:
Deynoux, M., Miller, J.M.G., Domack, E.W., Eyles, N., Fairchild, I.J., Young, G.M.
(Eds.), Earths Glacial Record. Cambridge University Press, pp. 241259.