Advance Mechanisms of Allochthonous
Salt Sheets: Implications for Predicting Subsalt
Pore Pressure
Michael R. Hudec
Bureau of Economic Geology, The
Two
mechanisms have been proposed for salt-sheet advance: tank tread and basal
shear. In tank-tread advance, the base of the sheet is attached to its
substrate, and the sheet advances by rolling forward as the top rolls downward
to become the new base. In basal shear, the sheet advances along a shear zone
at or near its base. The two models have very different implications for the
deformation and overpressure of sediments just below the sheet.
Physical
and mathematical models suggest that extrusive salt sheets advance as tank
treads, although this may be a product of materials and boundary conditions
used in the models. However, salt sheets buried beneath sedimentary roofs show
evidence of significant basal shear, at least near their leading edge. Most parts
of the Sigsbee Escarpment are today advancing along a
thrust fault that soles landward into the base of allochthonous
salt. This supports the widespread existence of base-salt shear zones along the
leading edge of the Sigsbee salt canopy. Parts of the
Sigsbee Escarpment also display internal shortening
of the sheet roof, which would be expected if the sheet had some component of
tank-tread advance but the roof was being prevented from rolling downward.
However, the shortening in most sheet roofs is small compared with the
displacement of the leading-edge thrust, suggesting that the tank-tread
component is subordinate to basal shear.
Prevalence
of basal shear implies very weak, overpressured subsalt sediments. It may therefore be possible to use the
structural style observed at the front of a salt sheet to infer conditions
beneath the sheet.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90064©2006-2007 AAPG Distinguished Lecturers