Salt Tectonics, Sediments and Prospectivity
In this timely volume, geoscientists from both industry and academia present a contemporary view of salt at a global scale. The studies examine the influence of salt on synkinematic sedimentation, its role in basin evolution and tectonics, and ultimately in hydrocarbon prospectivity. Recent improvements in seismic reflection, acquisition and processing techniques have led to significant advances in the understanding of salt and sediment interactions, both along the flanks of vertical or overturned salt margins, and in subsalt plays such as offshore Brazil. The book is broadly separated into five major themes covering a variety of geographical and process-linked topics. These are: halokinetic sequence stratigraphy, salt in passive margin settings, Central European salt basins, deformation within and adjacent to salt, and salt in contractional settings and salt glaciers.
Basin-scale salt tectonic processes of the Laurentian Basin, Eastern Canada: insights from integrated regional 2D seismic interpretation and 4D physical experiments
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Published:January 01, 2012
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CiteCitation
J. Adam, C. Krezsek, 2012. "Basin-scale salt tectonic processes of the Laurentian Basin, Eastern Canada: insights from integrated regional 2D seismic interpretation and 4D physical experiments", Salt Tectonics, Sediments and Prospectivity, G. I. Alsop, S. G. Archer, A. J. Hartley, N. T. Grant, R. Hodgkinson
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Abstract
This study integrates seismic interpretation and 3D analogue experiments monitored by digital image correlation techniques to investigate the evolution of the salt structures and the related depositional systems in the Laurentian Basin offshore Atlantic Canada. During the late Triassic, a layer of more than 3 km thick salt was deposited locally in a set of interconnected rift half-grabens forming a 50–70 km wide evaporite basin in the northern part of the Scotian Basin salt provinces. High sediment input in the Jurassic and early Cretaceous mobilized the salt into complex salt tectonic features, which suggest four kinematic domains with: (1) salt welds and pillows; (2) extensional diapirs and canopies; (3) contractional diapirs and folds; and (4) allochthonous salt nappe. The landward grabens trapped most of the Early Jurassic sediments by passive downbuilding into the salt with local extension. The expelled salt has been evacuated basinwards into a large contractional salt massif. The rapid advance of the allochthonous nappe was coeval with the Late Jurassic extensional collapse of the inflated salt massif due to seaward sediment progradation. Late Cretaceous and Tertiary progradation over the salt nappe caused extensional deformation with growth faulting and formation of minibasins on the secondary salt detachment level.