Estimation of Curie Point Depth (CPD) across the Pan African Belt in Northern Cameroon from Aeromagnetic Data

The depth to the Curie isothermal point (CPD) was estimated using aeromagnetic data from northern Cameroon. The CPD was estimated using a two-dimensional power density spectral analysis of nineteen 30 × 30 km blocks over a series of Neoproterozoic lithologies associated with the Pan African orogeny. The results show that there are two main regions characterized by the CPD analysis: 1) Shallow depths (~6.37 - 10.09 km) which are located in several regions including the northern portions of the study area (toward the regions of Hina Marbak, Gawel and northern Moutouroua), the southeast (Kaele region), the south (Guider) and the southwest (Mayo Oulo), and 2) deeper depths (~10.68 - 13.72 km) are located in the northeast (Mindif) and southwest (southern Moutouroua, Guider and Bossoum). The shallow depths can be related to two tectonic regimes: 1) the West-Central African Rift System with northeast-trending strike-slip faults emanating from the Gulf of Guinea and 2) the Cameroon Volcanic Line. However, the ultimate source of these shallow regions is interpreted to be related to the Cameroon Volcanic Line based on low seismic velocities imaged by recent broadband seismic studies which are concentrated along the northeast-trending strike-slip faults. An additional finding using the CPD depths, a Curie isothermal temperature of 580°C and a one-dimensional heat flow model, was heat-flow values ranging from 105.68 to 227.63 mW/m2, which are above average global heat flow values and are therefore indicative of potential geothermal resources.