page_title: Angola Basin
section_title: Tectonic mechanisms
hierarchical_section_title: Angola Basin / Tectonic mechanisms
caption_attribution_description: English: Mechanism of gravity spreading
context_page_description: The Angola Basin is located along the West African South Atlantic Margin which extends from Cameroon to Angola.
  It is characterized as a passive margin that began spreading in the south and then continued upwards throughout the basin.
  This basin formed during the initial breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea during the early Cretaceous, creating the Atlantic Ocean and causing the formation of the Angola, Cape, and Argentine basins.
  It is often separated into two units: the Lower Congo Basin, which lies in the northern region and the Kwanza Basin which is in the southern part of the Angola margin.
  The Angola Basin is famous for its "Aptian Salt Basins," a thick layer of evaporites that has influenced topography of the basin since its deposition and acts as an important petroleum reservoir.
context_section_description: Typically divergent boundaries are described as having landward extension, seaward contraction, and translation, however the order of events in this area are difficult to distinguish in such a clear-cut manner.
  This is due to the fact that areas of the basin are superimposed upon one another, which some interpret to show pulses of deformation and uplift that occur at irregular times and places.
caption: Gravity spreading mechanism based on Peel 2014
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