The Salina Basin lies on the southern margin of the Gulf of Mexico, adjacent to the Late Cretaceous-Tertiary foldbelt of the Sierra de Chiapas. As its name implies, the basin contains a significant quantity of salt, which is interpreted to be a laterally equivalent deposit of the Jurassic Louann Salt in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Salina basin has a complex history, ranging from carbonate dominated passive margin in late Mesozoic to clastic foredeep compressional in the Paleocene to clastic passive margin in the Neogene. Compression, intermittently active since the late Cretaceous, has profoundly affected the distribution of allochtorious salt in the basin.

Traditional models of the Salina Basin interpret the style of salt tectonics as dominated by steep vertical-sided salt diapirs. Although the presence of isolated diapirs cannot be ruled out, recent studies of wells and improved-quality seismic data indicate the widespread presence of remnant salt canopies in the basin, similar to salt features identified in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Canopy emplacement was initiated during the Paleocene in response to thrusting and burial under a thick foredeep sediment load, prograding from the south. Uplift of the Sierra de Chiapas provided a large sediment influx, which loaded the canopies, forming intra-salt basins. Some of these development into large salt evacuation basins, of which the Comalcalco and Macuspana basins are examples. Miopliocene turbidites, onlaping salt bodies, are classic plays in the basin and oilfields have been discovered below the remnant salt sheets. New salt tectonic geologic models signify significant remaining potential to be developed in the future.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90937©1998 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah