Morphology Analysis of Niger Delta Shoreline and Estuaries for Ecotourism Potential in Nigeria - The Land/Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone of West and Central Africa - page 114

Plate 3 Liquified natural gas terminal within Bonny landscape ( www.indypendent.org , 2010)

with the sedimentation being of the order of 2 million m 3 per
year in the lee of the breakwaters. The Escravos is linked by a
maze of interconnected waterways to the Forcados, Warri,
Benin, and Ethiope Rivers.
The Forcados River is a channel in the Niger Delta, in
Southern Nigeria. It flows for approximately 198 km and
meets the sea at the Bight of Benin. The Forcados River
splits from the Niger River at the same point as the Nun
River. At Forcados Entrance, the natural depth of the bar at
the threshold is about 4.8 m.

and Qua Iboe Rivers are underlain by sedimentary forma-
tions of Late Tertiary and Holocene ages with deposits of
recent alluvium and beach ridge sands occurring along the
coast (Plate 6 ). The Imo estuary is around 40 km wide, and
the river has an annual discharge of 4 km 3 with 26,000
hectares of wetland and is characterized by fluvio-lagoonal
deposits and littoral sands of the beach ridge complex,
including organic silts, clays, and sand. The estuary com-
prises tidal creeks, small brackish water lagoons, and
fringing mangrove swamps. The estuaries are shallow and
have tidal amplitudes of about 1.0 m and receive seawater
from the Atlantic Ocean (Plate 7 ).

Box 4: Niger Delta Estuaries
• Niger Delta is a tidal river estuary of fluvial erosion
origin and a fully developed Holocene environment
covering an area of about 680 km 2 .
• Bonny river system has the largest tidal volume
within the Niger Delta and lies in the strand coast.
• Cross River estuary is the largest along the Gulf of
Guinea.
• Calabar Estuary is a NE-SW-trending tidal river
and a major tributary of the Cross River.
• Qua Iboe River estuary is a meso-tidal estuary with
N-S-trending.
• Estuaries of the Imo and Qua Iboe Rivers are
underlain by sedimentary formations of Late Ter-
tiary and Holocene ages.
• Escravos and Forcados estuaries are river estuaries
which are tributaries of the Niger River located in
the western Niger Delta flank.

Escravos and Forcados Estuaries

Escravos and Forcados estuaries (Fig. 7 ) are river estuaries
which are tributaries of the Niger River located in the western
Niger Delta flank. The river estuaries are a complex system
where seawater is diluted with freshwater and the dilution
process takes place at different mixing levels. This results
from mixing due to many forcing mechanisms such as tides
and tidal currents, waves and tidal waves, and induced
motion and runoff (Dyer 1997 ). The Escravos River is a
distributary of the Niger River; it flows through a westerly
course and traverses zones of mangrove swamps and coastal
sand ridges for 57 km before ending at the Bight of Benin on
the Gulf of Guinea, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. At
the Escravos Bar, the natural passageway is about 4 m deep