Major, Trace, and Rare Earth Elements Geochemistry of the Late Paleocene Shales from Gamba Formation, Sokoto Basin, Northwest Nigeria

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This study analyzed trace elements and major oxides in Gamba Formation shales to reconstruct provenance, tectonic setting, and depositional conditions, revealing detritus from mafic and felsic sources in marine, anoxic to oxic environments near passive margins.

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This preprint investigates major oxides, trace elements, and rare earth elements in Late Paleocene shales from the Gamba Formation in the Sokoto Basin, using ICP-MS and XRF alongside statistical analyses to infer provenance, tectonic setting, and depositional conditions. The study reports very high concentrations of Na, K, Ca, and Mg, with U at the lowest values, and finds light rare earth elements enriched over heavy rare earth elements, which the authors interpret as reflecting anoxic conditions; major oxides show elevated SiO2 and Fe2O3 greater than Al2O3, consistent with quartz-dominated shale formation in marine settings. Trace-element and major-oxide distributions on spider diagrams match UCC and PAAS, and discrimination/ratio plots plus multivariate statistics indicate mixtures of mafic and felsic detritus deposited under varying oxic–anoxic conditions near a passive margin and continental island arc. A major caveat is that the work is a Research Square preprint that has not been peer reviewed by a journal. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Abstract Trace elements and major oxides geochemistry has gained global attention because of their potentials as provenance, tectonic settings, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions indicators in geological materials. Until now, there has been a lack of extensive focus on the detailed analysis of major, trace, and rare earth elements in the shales of the Sokoto basin, particularly within the Gamba Formation of the basin. Therefore, the present investigation delved into the geochemical importance of trace elements and major oxides constituents in the shales taken from the Gamba Formation, situated in the Sokoto basin. This was achieved through the utilization of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and statistical methodologies, all considered within the framework of provenance, tectonic environments, and conditions of deposition. Alkali metals and alkali-earth metal elements, Na, K, Ca, and Mg occurred in very high concentrations in the shale samples while U has the lowest values, indicating the detritus derived from various provenances (felsic and mafic) and reducing conditions of the environment. Among the rare earth elements detected in the shales, light rare earth elements showed enriched concentrations compared to heavy rare earth elements, indicating anoxic conditions. Among the major oxides identified, the shales exhibit elevated levels of SiO2, with Fe2O3 greater than Al2O3; whereas the remaining oxides demonstrate relatively low concentrations. This suggests that shales are predominantly constituted of quartz minerals and were formed in marine settings. Moreover, the distribution patterns of the trace elements and major oxides showed striking similarities on the spider diagrams of UCC and PAAS. The ratios derived from both the trace elements and major oxides, along with the discrimination diagrams, indicated that the shales consist of mafic and felsic detritus. They were likely deposited under varying conditions, such as anoxic and oxic, in close proximity to the passive margin and continental island arc. These conclusions were further corroborated by the multivariate statistical analyses conducted on the elemental dataset. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of trace elements and major oxides geochemistry in assessing the origin, tectonic setting, and paleoenvironments of shales.
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Major, Trace, and Rare Earth Elements Geochemistry of the Late Paleocene Shales from Gamba Formation, Sokoto Basin, Northwest Nigeria | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Major, Trace, and Rare Earth Elements Geochemistry of the Late Paleocene Shales from Gamba Formation, Sokoto Basin, Northwest Nigeria Abiodun B. Ogbesejana, Lawal Aminu Muaz, Nasiru Sani Gobirawa, and 8 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4417274/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Trace elements and major oxides geochemistry has gained global attention because of their potentials as provenance, tectonic settings, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions indicators in geological materials. Until now, there has been a lack of extensive focus on the detailed analysis of major, trace, and rare earth elements in the shales of the Sokoto basin, particularly within the Gamba Formation of the basin. Therefore, the present investigation delved into the geochemical importance of trace elements and major oxides constituents in the shales taken from the Gamba Formation, situated in the Sokoto basin. This was achieved through the utilization of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and statistical methodologies, all considered within the framework of provenance, tectonic environments, and conditions of deposition. Alkali metals and alkali-earth metal elements, Na, K, Ca, and Mg occurred in very high concentrations in the shale samples while U has the lowest values, indicating the detritus derived from various provenances (felsic and mafic) and reducing conditions of the environment. Among the rare earth elements detected in the shales, light rare earth elements showed enriched concentrations compared to heavy rare earth elements, indicating anoxic conditions. Among the major oxides identified, the shales exhibit elevated levels of SiO 2 , with Fe 2 O 3 greater than Al 2 O 3 ; whereas the remaining oxides demonstrate relatively low concentrations. This suggests that shales are predominantly constituted of quartz minerals and were formed in marine settings. Moreover, the distribution patterns of the trace elements and major oxides showed striking similarities on the spider diagrams of UCC and PAAS. The ratios derived from both the trace elements and major oxides, along with the discrimination diagrams, indicated that the shales consist of mafic and felsic detritus. They were likely deposited under varying conditions, such as anoxic and oxic, in close proximity to the passive margin and continental island arc. These conclusions were further corroborated by the multivariate statistical analyses conducted on the elemental dataset. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of trace elements and major oxides geochemistry in assessing the origin, tectonic setting, and paleoenvironments of shales. Shales trace elements major oxides ICP-MS XRF Sokoto basin Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15 Figure 16 Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Tables are available in the Supplementary Files section. Supplementary Files TablesofGambaformationmanuscript2.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4417274","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":305873313,"identity":"18aa32eb-b70c-4e30-9510-05402674641b","order_by":0,"name":"Abiodun B. 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Nigeria","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Shales, trace elements, major oxides, ICP-MS, XRF, Sokoto basin","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4417274/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4417274/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eTrace elements and major oxides geochemistry has gained global attention because of their potentials as provenance, tectonic settings, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions indicators in geological materials. Until now, there has been a lack of extensive focus on the detailed analysis of major, trace, and rare earth elements in the shales of the Sokoto basin, particularly within the Gamba Formation of the basin. Therefore, the present investigation delved into the geochemical importance of trace elements and major oxides constituents in the shales taken from the Gamba Formation, situated in the Sokoto basin. This was achieved through the utilization of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and statistical methodologies, all considered within the framework of provenance, tectonic environments, and conditions of deposition. Alkali metals and alkali-earth metal elements, Na, K, Ca, and Mg occurred in very high concentrations in the shale samples while U has the lowest values, indicating the detritus derived from various provenances (felsic and mafic) and reducing conditions of the environment. Among the rare earth elements detected in the shales, light rare earth elements showed enriched concentrations compared to heavy rare earth elements, indicating anoxic conditions. Among the major oxides identified, the shales exhibit elevated levels of SiO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, with Fe\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e greater than Al\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e; whereas the remaining oxides demonstrate relatively low concentrations. This suggests that shales are predominantly constituted of quartz minerals and were formed in marine settings. Moreover, the distribution patterns of the trace elements and major oxides showed striking similarities on the spider diagrams of UCC and PAAS. The ratios derived from both the trace elements and major oxides, along with the discrimination diagrams, indicated that the shales consist of mafic and felsic detritus. They were likely deposited under varying conditions, such as anoxic and oxic, in close proximity to the passive margin and continental island arc. These conclusions were further corroborated by the multivariate statistical analyses conducted on the elemental dataset. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of trace elements and major oxides geochemistry in assessing the origin, tectonic setting, and paleoenvironments of shales.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Major, Trace, and Rare Earth Elements Geochemistry of the Late Paleocene Shales from Gamba Formation, Sokoto Basin, Northwest Nigeria","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-05-31 20:15:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4417274/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"efe61e48-e7a3-4389-9c87-883e2d203a92","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 31st, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-08-27T06:45:33+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-05-31 20:15:33","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4417274","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4417274","identity":"rs-4417274","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}

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