Cenozoic

Cretaceous

Jurassic

Triassic

Permian

Paleozoic

Compiled by: Jacques LeBlanc (2022), Stratigraphic Lexicon: The Sedimentary Formations of The Republic of Niger, Africa. Colnes Publishing (Tallin, Estonia), 365 pp. For more information see "About"

Select Region(s) to search
Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or Command (Mac) to select multiple

Tiguentourine Formation

Tiguentourine Fm

Period:

Carboniferous, Permian

Age Interval:

Upper Carboniferous (Gzhelian) to Lower Permian (9)

Province:
Djado Basin

Type Locality and Naming

Defined in the Edjeleh area of eastern Algeria by de Lapparent & Lelubre (1948)

References: Lapparent & Lelubre, 1948; Freulon, 1964; Fabre, 1970, Goudarzi, 1970; Bertrand-Sarfati & Fabre, 1972; Lababidi et al., 1985; Attar et al., 1981; Mergl & Massa, 2000; Fabre, 2005; Tawadros, 2011; Shalbak, 2015; Hallet, 2002, 2016.

Synonym: Tiguentounine Fm (misspelling) . Equivalent(s): Mergl & Massa (2000) state that the lower part of the Tiguentourine Fm is the equivalent to the “*Madama sandstones”. They are exposed near and around Madama, a military fort in the central part of the basin.

Lithology and Thickness

The lower part is made up of red and green shales with primary dolomites. There is a massive gypsum bed (2 to 4 m thick) and reddish cross-bedded sandstones in the upper part. (Fig. 1). Thickness: 80 m at the Type Locality in Algeria (Hallet, 2002). However, Attar et al. (1981) describe a 240 m section; 100 m in the Djado Basin; 200 m in Libya (Mergl & Massa (2000)).

[Figure 1. Stratigraphic column of the Tiguentourine Fm at the Locality Type in Algeria (Source: Modified from Shalbak, 2015).]

Lithology Pattern:

Gypsiferous claystone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Disconformably overlies the Dimbabah Fm

Upper contact

Conformably overlain by the Zarzaitine Fm

Regional extent

[Figure 2. Outcrop and subsurface extents of the Tiguentourine Fm in Libya and Niger (Source: Shalbak, 2015).]

GeoJSON

{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":[[[[10.29,24.53],[11.71,22.75],[12.35,20.58],[12.79,20.77],[14.39,19.54],[15.21,19.8],[15.15,20.17],[15.81,20.61],[15.17,21.5],[14.95,23],[15.24,24.14],[15.99,25.63],[16.34,26.94],[15.11,27.67],[13.39,27.63],[10.96,26.85],[11.03,26.21],[10.06,26.47],[10.11,25.53],[10.29,24.56]]]]}}

Fossils

The lower half contains thin layers of stromatolitic limestones rich in Euestheria (E. simoni and E. tenella) associated with palaeoniscid and selachian fish fragments. Attar et al. (1981) describe Acanthodian, Elasmobranchs and Actinopterygians fragments preserved in ferruginous nodules.

Age

Upper Carboniferous (Gzhelian) to Lower Permian in Libya. In Niger, the outcrops are assigned only to the continental Upper Carboniferous, while in the subsurface, some younger beds may be assigned to the Lower Permian (Mergl & Massa, 2000)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Gzhelian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.0

Beginning date (Ma):

303.68

Ending stage:

Asselian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

293.52

Depositional setting

Fluviatile or lagoonal environment (lower part); fluvial environment with evidence of aeolian influence (upper part).

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

Jacques LeBlanc (2022), Stratigraphic Lexicon: The Sedimentary Formations of The Republic of Niger, Africa. Colnes Publishing (Tallin, Estonia), 365 pp. https://doi.org/10.47909/978-9916-9760-6-7 (or via https://sites.google.com/site/leblancjacques)