Salt tectonics on passive margins are driven by sediment loading and gliding with minimal influence from basement-involved tectonics and is associated with variable and complex salt structures, such as minibasins and diapirs. A major enigma in salt tectonics is the origin of load-driven diapir-flanked minibasins, synclinal depocenters formed by localized subsidence of syn-kinematic sediments into salt. How can less-dense clastic sediments sink into the denser salt, promoting diapirism at their flanks? We use two-dimensional numerical modeling of lithospheric extension including syn- and post-rift sedimentation to understand the evolution of salt-tectonic minibasins along rifted passive margins. Our results show that these minibasins are driven by deposition of dense early post-salt carbonates and then amplified during progradation of less-dense and compacting clastics. In contrast, basin-scale salt flow driven by clastic progradation alone, without deposition of early post-salt carbonates, does not produce minibasins as observed on salt-bearing passive margins.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Article Contents
Research Article|
November 17, 2023
Post-salt carbonates control salt-tectonic minibasin formation
Leonardo M. Pichel;
Leonardo M. Pichel
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Search for other works by this author on:
Ritske S. Huismans;
Ritske S. Huismans
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Search for other works by this author on:
Robert Gawthorpe;
Robert Gawthorpe
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Search for other works by this author on:
Jan Inge Faleide
Jan Inge Faleide
2
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway
Search for other works by this author on:
Leonardo M. Pichel
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Ritske S. Huismans
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Robert Gawthorpe
1
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Jan Inge Faleide
2
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Received:
08 Sep 2023
Revision Received:
27 Oct 2023
Accepted:
02 Nov 2023
First Online:
17 Nov 2023
Online ISSN: 1943-2682
Print ISSN: 0091-7613
© 2023 Geological Society of America
Geology (2023)
Article history
Received:
08 Sep 2023
Revision Received:
27 Oct 2023
Accepted:
02 Nov 2023
First Online:
17 Nov 2023
Citation
Leonardo M. Pichel, Ritske S. Huismans, Robert Gawthorpe, Jan Inge Faleide; Post-salt carbonates control salt-tectonic minibasin formation. Geology 2023; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G51717.1
Download citation file:
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.