Louisiana Slope Salt-Ridge Continuity Confirmed

Allan Lowrie, Karen S. Hoffman, Neil Sullivan

The Louisiana offshore is a world-class hydrocarbon province. Abundant reservoirs develop as the result of interaction between salt tectonics and sedimentation. Thus, it is essential to know both regional and local characteristics of the extent and timing of salt tectonics as an aid in hydrocarbon exploration. Exploration mythology mandates that salt domes and ridges are virtually random across the slope area.

In sharp contrast, we describe a definite pattern to the salt ridges of slightly concave (to the north) arcs, with the southernmost arc located along the Sigsbee Escarpment and the northernmost along the shelf break. Furthermore, salt domes may not be truly randomly located but rather part of ancestral or existent salt ridges.

Confirming data are provided by dip bathymetric and seismic profiles. The bathymetric profiles are at 5-mi (8-km) spacings from 1987 published charts of the Gulf of Mexico. Dip seismic lines reveal that bathymetric highs are associated with underlying salt. Buried salt accumulations are surficially expressed by actual ridges and domes, a leveling of seafloor, or a local decrease in the rate of regional slope descent.

Salt is the Neogene-age basement of the Louisiana slope. The existence of an overall salt-ridge pattern implies that there is a single dynamic geologic system controlling the evolution of this slope. As salt tectonic rates and timing are deciphered for specific sites along dip, intervening rates may be interpolated to unmapped zones. Confirming an overall salt tectonic pattern is mandatory prior to quantifying regional and specific rates for the whole slope.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.