New regional stratigraphic insights from a 3D geological model of the Nasia sub-basin, Ghana, developed for hydrogeological purposes and based on reprocessed B-field data originally collected for mineral exploration

Reprocessing of regional-scale airborne electromagnetic data is used to build a 3D geological model of the Nasia sub-basin, northern Ghana. The resulting 3D geological model consistently integrates all the prior pieces of information brought by electromagnetic data, lithologic logs, ground-based geophysical surveys, and geological knowledge of the terrain. The geo-modeling process is aimed at defining the lithostratigraphy of the area, chiefly to improve the stratigraphic definition of the area, and for hydrogeological purposes. The airborne electromagnetic measurements, consisting of GEOTEM B-field data, were originally collected for mineral exploration purposes. Thus, those B-field data had to be (re)processed and properly inverted as the original survey and data handling were designed for the detection of potential mineral targets and not for detailed geological mapping. These new geophysical inversion results, compared with the original conductivity–depth images, provided a significantly different picture of the subsurface. The new geophysical model led to new interpretations of the geological settings and to the construction of a comprehensive 3D geo-model of the basin. In this respect, the evidence of a hitherto unexposed system of paleovalleys could be inferred from the airborne data. The stratigraphic position of these paleovalleys suggests a distinctly different glaciation history from the known Marinoan events, commonly associated with the Kodjari formation of the Voltaian sedimentary basin. Indeed, the presence of the paleovalleys within the Panabako may be correlated with mountain glaciation within the Sturtian age, though no unequivocal glaciogenic strata have yet been identified. Pre-Marinoan glaciation is recorded in rocks of the Wassangara group of the Taoudéni Basin. The combination of the Marinoan and, possibly, Sturtian glaciation episodes, both of the Cryogenian period, can be an indication of a Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth. Hence, the occurrence of those geological features not only has important socioeconomic consequences – as the paleovalleys can act as reservoirs for groundwater – but also from a scientific point of view, they could be extremely relevant as their presence would require a revision of the present stratigraphy of the area.