**4. Soil of the region**

The base of the sedimentary fill in Nigeria coastal area consists of unfossiliferrous sandstones and gravel weathered from the underlying pre-Cambrian basement [9].

*Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts on the Ecosystem of the Transgressive Mud Coastal… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105760*

Above the course materials are marine shales, sandstones and limestones of Santonian age, whose deposition was ended in parts of the Nigerian basin by folding, faulting, and basic igneous intrusion during the Santonian age. The next cycle of deposition began with the transgression that lasted into the Maestrichtian. The present Niger delta was initiated during regression that began in the early Eocene [10]. The soils underlying the Niger delta are generally characterized as soft, highly compressible, organic and inorganic silty clays overlying fine sands at great depths.
