Chapter

Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

5
5.1 Introduction
Salt stocks and salt walls are the most classic of salt structures.
They rise as subterranean mountains from the basin floor and
are remarkable for their size: some stocks are more than 10 km
tall, and some walls are more than 100 km long. Their abun-
dance is equally impressive: the Precaspian basin alone con-
tains about 1,800 named stocks and walls. Despite their being
prominent in salt-tectonic literature, many aspects of their
growth were misunderstood for decades.
These structures are diapirs, which are ductile masses of
rock or sediment that have pierced or appear to have pierced
their overburden. The term diapir was first applied to Miocene
salt in the Romanian Carpathians (Mrazec 1907), but it has
been expanded to include ice, soft sediments (mud, sand, and
peat), soft rocks (gypsum, coal, shale, and limestone), and
igneous or metamorphic complexes (granitoids, serpentinite,
gneiss, and migmatite). Because of this broad range of geology,
definitions of diapirs vary widely. This book is concerned only
with evaporite diapirs.
The key feature of a diapir is that it is discordant to its
overburden: its upper contacts cut across bedding in the over-
burden (Figure 5.1). In maps and depth slices, diapiric salt has
an anomalous stratigraphic position: the salt is in discordant
contact with strata younger than the units that stratigraphically
directly overlie autochthonous salt.
The term salt dome (Harris and Veatch 1899) is a loose
equivalent of salt diapir but is not synonymous for two
reasons. First, the core of a salt dome can be a diapir or a
pillow. Second, a structural dome has a rounded planform,
whereas a salt diapir can be rounded or highly elongated. Thus
the term salt dome is both broader and narrower than salt
diapir. Although used only rarely in this book, salt dome has
widespread currency and can be useful. For example, although
most salt diapirs are buried, some form low islands or hills,
and this topographic relief is emphasized by dome. The ambi-
guity of salt dome is useful where the degree of discordance
of the salt core is unknown. Because dome rolls easily off a
layperson’s tongue, it is commonly part of an official name.

Figure 5.1. All diapirs, whether they are salt

a stocks, salt walls, or salt sheets have discordant
contacts against their overburden.
Ridge

Overb
urden
cutoff Discordant
Salt wall contact Overburden
c cutoff

Diapir
b
Dome

Overb
urden Source layer
cutoff
Salt stock

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a Reactive piercement b Active piercement
Salt
c Thrust piercement d Erosional “piercement”
e Ductile “piercement” f Passive “piercement”
Figure 5.2. Six types of diapiric rise. After Hudec and Jackson (2007).
Salt stocks are pluglike bodies (hence often called salt
plugs) having equant planforms, whereas salt walls are more
elongate. Usage of stocks and walls is gradational. Hudec and
Jackson (2011) suggested that stocks have axial ratios less than
2 and that walls have axial ratios of 2 or more, but any value
proposed is arbitrary and disputable.
The genesis of salt diapirs is much more complex and
variable than that of salt pillows. For buried salt to be diapiri-
cally emplaced, the overburden occupying the intruded space
must be removed or displaced (Figure 5.2). Three modes of
diapirism involve true piercement into brittle overburden.
Regional extension may stretch overburden, which makes
room for a reactive diapir to rise between fault blocks
(Figure 5.2(a)). Flaps of overburden may tilt outward as the
diapir rises by active diapirism (Figure 5.2(b)). Salt may be
emplaced into its overburden in the hanging wall of a thrust
fault (Figure 5.2(c)).
Three other modes of diapirism have apparent rather than
actual piercement of overburden. The roof may be removed by
erosion, exposing the salt, which is free to spread discordantly
across the unconformity (Figure 5.2(d)). A diapir having a
weak overburden may thin its roof (Figure 5.2(e)). For
example, diapirs in the Great Kavir, Iran, have an overburden
of mudrocks mixed with halite and gypsum (Jackson et al.
1990). In some cases this thinned roof is then actively pierced
(Section 5.3). The third way in which diapirs apparently
pierce their overburden is passive diapirism, or downbuilding
(Figure 5.2(f)). Where a passive diapir emerges, it remains at
or near the surface while surrounding sediments accumulate.
The base of the downward-growing diapir sinks – hence the
term downbuilding – as the basin subsides.
These diapiric mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, and
most salt diapirs grow by mixed processes (Section 5.5).
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5.2 Reactive Diapirism
5.2 Reactive Diapirism
5.2.1 Mechanism of Reactive Diapirism
Regional extension necks the overburden, creating grabens and
half-grabens (Section 10.2). This inhomogeneous thinning
creates a differential load and weakens the overburden by
fracturing and faulting. Salt walls pressurized by overburden
load on adjoining areas begin to rise below the thinned over-
burden. Salt fills the space created by extensional thinning
and separation of overlying fault blocks. In the models in
Figure 5.3, all the layers were initially tabular and horizontal.
Regardless of density, this initial configuration is stable
because the gravitational load is even. During regional exten-
sion, however, a graben forms. As the graben sinks into the
salt, it is increasingly resisted by two forces: (1) increasing fluid
pressure, and (2) increasing surface area of the graben keel,
which increases the pressure forces supporting the keel. Even-
tually the graben keel sinks to an equilibrium depth, and its
bounding faults cease to slip. Continued extension slices the
graben into smaller pieces as new faults form nearer the graben
axis. Because each new piece sliced from the original graben is
increasingly smaller, each new piece floats with a keel depth
that becomes shallower toward the graben axis. This configur-
ation is somewhat analogous to Airy isostasy, in which blocks
of equal density float at different levels depending on their
thickness (Bowie 1927). In this way, as faults slice up the
graben, the underlying salt rises as a triangular diapir. The
diapir does not rise by forceful intrusion. Instead, the pressur-
ized source layer supports the partial weight of each fault
block. The rest of the weight of each fault block is supported
by its footwall.
This type of salt upwelling is termed reactive diapirism
because salt rises in reaction to extension (Vendeville and
Jackson 1992a). In physical models, reactive diapirs stop rising
whenever regional extension stops; they rise again whenever
extension recommences. Reactive diapirism explains why in
many basins around the world, salt diapirs began to rise when
the salt layer first extended (Jackson and Vendeville 1994). It
may also explain why many cratonic basins never form salt
diapirs despite having thick salt and denser overburden. Sedi-
mentary loading was too uniform, and there was no regional
extension to differentially load the salt. Extension controls the
overall shape of reactive diapirs; they are salt walls, not stocks.
Reactive diapirism is complicated by the effects of density
and synkinematic sedimentation. In the simple models of
Figure 5.3, the overburden was denser than the salt. The same
model without a density inversion yielded a similar reactive
diapir. The diapir rose reactively without a density inversion
for the same reason that it rose with a density inversion.
The main differential load is the density contrast between the
overburden and the air-filled (or water-filled) graben. The
density difference between overburden and salt is much less.
The only effect of an overburden less dense than the salt is to
limit the rise of the dense reactive diapir. Salt having a density
greater than the average density of its overburden can emerge
77
 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

In theory, reactive rise can be prevented altogether if the

a 2 1
Time (h)
0.0 graben is kept completely filled with sediment. In practice, this
case is rare for two reasons. First, most grabens subside fast
enough to maintain some surface relief. Second, graben-fill
sediments are usually less compacted, and thus less dense, than
surrounding sediments. Consequently, a load gradient is pre-
sent to drive salt toward the graben even if the graben is kept
filled with synkinematic sediment.
Salt

b 2 1 2.0
5.2.2 Structural Style of Reactive Diapirs
A reactive diapir formed during synkinematic deposition is
similar to one formed from prekinematic overburden
(Figure 5.4). Both diapirs are triangular, have a sharp apex
overlain by a graben, and are flanked by a fan of inward-
dipping normal faults that end at the salt contact. But reactive
diapirs rising through synkinematic overburdens have add-
c 2 1 3.0
itional features. The inward-dipping normal faults are growth
faults, so that beds thicken across the faults inward toward the
3
salt. In contrast, underlying prekinematic beds maintain con-
stant stratigraphic thickness, although they may thin exten-
sionally, depending on their lithology.
The width of a reactive diapir’s base records the amount of
extension. At the base, extension is accommodated entirely by
flow of salt. Midway up the diapir, extension is partly by flow
of salt and partly by faulting. Above the diapir, extension is
d 2 1 5.0 entirely by faulting. With entirely prekinematic overburden,
3
5 6 4 extension is equal at these three levels, despite taking different
7 8
forms. With synkinematic overburden, extension declines
upward.
All the reactive diapirs discussed so far have symmetric
profiles like an isosceles triangle. However, reactive diapirs
Amount of extension and also include highly asymmetric diapirs. Strongly asymmetric
depth of compensation
reactive diapirs, known as salt rollers (Bally 1981) have
e 2 Rotated flaps from
active stage 7
1 6.5 asymmetric profiles like scalene triangles. Their long sloping
side is concordant to the overburden, and their short
3
6 5 4
sloping side is a normal fault (Figure 5.5). The lower part
of the fault juxtaposes salt against overburden, and its upper
part juxtaposes overburden against overburden. Salt rollers
form whenever one crestal-fault orientation is favored over
another, as might happen if stress axes were rotated from
the vertical. Stress axes rotate above dipping detachments,
0 4 cm so rollers are particularly common above seaward-dipping
salt detachments near the landward ends of divergent
Figure 5.3. A reactive diapir rises because of thin-skinned regional extension. margins.
These cross sections of an evolving reactive wall are from otherwise
identical physical models extended by 0 cm, 2 cm, 3 cm, 5 cm, and 6.5 cm, Figures 5.6 and 5.7 show the key diagnostic features of
respectively. All the overburden is prekinematic. In the final stage (e), active reactive diapiric walls: a triangular shape, pointed crest, and
diapirism had begun. Faults are numbered in order of formation. After Jackson a crestal graben or half-graben, which dominate the map view.
and Vendeville (1994).
An axial trench in the floor of the graben is bounded by fault
terraces that step upward and outward to the upwardly flexed
margins of the graben. Faults are subparallel but may
in the graben floor, but the diapir’s crest can never rise as high anastomose.
as the top of the overburden outside the graben. Most diapirs worldwide began growing during extension
The driving force for reactive diapirism is greatest if the (Jackson and Vendeville 1994), which suggests that regional
reactive graben above the diapir is filled with air or water. Rise extension triggers salt diapirism. If salt in a reactive diapir
rates are less if synkinematic sediments partially fill the graben. eventually reaches the surface to become a passive diapir

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 5.3 Active Diapirism

Faults become Figure 5.4. Synkinematic layers thicken across

younger inward growth faults above a reactive diapir. Extension

Synkinematic
dismembered one marker block so that it was split

layers
each side of the reactive diapir, illustrating the
magnitude of extension. After a physical model by
Bruno Vendeville.

Prekinematic
layers
Segmented marker Salt
0 5 cm Diapir widening offsets Marker block
marker block

(Section 5.4), the faults on the flanks become inactive, as

a further extension is accommodated by diapir widening. The
only evidence of the early reactive phase is a swarm of normal
faults against the deep flanks of the diapir, reflecting its early
extensional history.

5.3 Active Diapirism

5.3.1 Mechanisms of Active Rise
Active rise occurs whenever a salt structure arches, uplifts, or
shoulders aside its overburden. We distinguish between active
rise, in which the roof is uplifted but not necessarily pierced,
and active diapirism, in which the roof is pierced during active
b rise. Active rise can be driven either by halokinetic processes or
by shortening.
Increasing asymmetry

5.3.1.1 Halokinetic Active Rise

Halokinetic active diapirism is driven by overburden load on
the adjoining source layer, which creates an upward pressure
of diapiric salt on its roof. This load can be produced by
buoyancy alone if the average density of the overburden is
greater than that of the salt, or by surface topography
(Figure 5.8). The forces resisting active rise are the weight
and strength of the overburden and the viscosity of the salt.
Resisting forces in the overburden increase as it thickens. The
c roof thickness at which forces are balanced is called the thresh-
old thickness (Figure 5.9). The threshold thickness comes into
play at both the start and the end of halokinetic active rise.
Halokinetic active rise begins owing to increase in driving
force, decrease in resisting force, or both. Driving forces stead-
ily increase as sedimentation increases the pressure on the
source layer. Resisting forces typically decrease owing to
faulting or thinning of the overburden. Thus, reactive diapir-
ism commonly leads to active diapirism (Figure 5.3) because
the roof is thinned and weakened by extensional faulting.
Concordant flank
Overburden can also thin because of small-scale deformation
Discordant flank or erosion. Erosion triggers active rise when erosion bevels the
0 3 cm crest of an anticline or, less commonly, when a canyon cuts
into flat-lying strata.
Figure 5.5. During thin-skinned extension, reactive diapirs can be highly Halokinetic active rise is influenced most strongly by sedi-
asymmetric on a seaward topographic slope. Seaward-dipping faults are
favored at the expense of the conjugate landward-dipping faults, resulting ment density, roof strength and anisotropy, and salt geometry
in a salt roller. Physical model by Lin (1992). (Schultz-Ela et al. 1993). Active rise is promoted by increasing

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Stairstep faulting Figure 5.6. Diagnostic criteria of reactive

Parallel above buried wall walls in a schematic block diagram. After Jackson
faults et al. (1994).
Regional
extension
pir
dia
rd
owa
gt
Marginal e nin
thick
flexure
allow lts n
Sh l fau n sio
or ma exte
Regional
o fn by
an g
F nin
hin
Pointed
e pt
crest of De
wall

Figure 5.7. Three diapirs show the hallmarks of

reactive diapirism: a triangular salt body overlain by a
fan of inward-dipping normal faults in a
Fan of normal
crestal graben. The diapirs range from symmetric
5.0 (center), to moderately asymmetric (right side),
faults forms
crestal graben to strongly asymmetric (left side). Campos basin,
offshore Brazil. Seismic data courtesy of PGS.
Two-way time (s)

5.5

6.0
Salt weld
Pointed crest of
0 3 km reactive diapir

Figure 5.8. Halokinetic active diapirism can be

a driven by two types of gravitational loading.
(a) Average density of the overburden is greater
ρo < ρs than that of salt. (b) Topographic variation
ρs creating a wedge of water (or air); a diapir can
ρo > ρs rise actively even though the overburden is less
dense than salt.
P2 P2 < P1 P1
b Water wedge ρw Overburden
wedge
ρo ρw < ρo < ρs
ρs
P2 P2 < P1 P1

the average density and thickness of sediments overlying the
source layer, which increases the driving force, and by decreas-
ing thickness and density of sediments above the salt structure,
which decreases the resisting force.
Active rise is also promoted by weak roofs, especially
faulted or unconsolidated sediment. An isotropic roof (com-
posed of massive sediments) does not bend easily. Instead,
active rise divides the roof into tilted flaps. The hinges of these
flaps are reverse faults that steepen downward (Figure 5.10(a)).
In contrast, an anisotropic roof (composed of multilayers
separated by slip surfaces) bends easily and forms an anticline
when arched (Figure 5.10(b)). At the outer edge of the anti-
cline, strata flex but do not fault. Interlayer slip in the roof of
an active diapir has the following effects relative to an isotropic
roof. The diapir rises higher and faster. The roof flexes
smoothly as a fold. The diapir crest (top of salt) is rounded
rather than pointed. Flaps above the shoulders of the diapir dip
more steeply.

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 5.3 Active Diapirism

Figure 5.9. Roof thickness controls the ability of

a Halokinetic active rise impossible a diapir to rise actively by halokinesis. If the roof is
too thick (above threshold thickness), the diapir is
Roof thickness
inactive (a). If the roof is thin enough (below
ρo Threshold thickness threshold thickness) (b), the diapir rises actively
Density inversion: ρo > ρs
until its crest rises high enough to pressurize the
Po = pressure below overburden base of the diapir (c).
ρo Salt Pd = pressure below diapir and roof

ρs

b Start of active rise c End of active rise Arched roof

Roof thickness < threshold

Extra thickness
of salt

Po Pd Po Pd

Unstable: Pd < Po Stable: Pd = Po

Wider diapirs are more likely to rise actively than narrow

a Isotropic roof ones, other factors being equal. Cross-sectional shape also
Contour levels are 4 × higher than below 304 000 yr matters: the likelihood of halokinetic active rise is greatest for
rectangular diapirs, and rise becomes progressively less likely
for round-cornered rectangles, semicircles, and triangles.
Halokinetic active rise continues until either the roof
Angular thickens to reach its threshold thickness or the diapir breaks
diapir crest through to the surface and becomes passive. Breakthrough
Salt
typically occurs as a result of roof arching and thinning by
extension or erosion. When the roof is too thin and weak to
resist salt pressure, the remaining roof is uplifted and shoul-
b Layered roof
Steep dips above diapir shoulder 304 000 yr
dered aside to form outward-dipping flaps as the salt emerges
at the surface (Figure 5.11, Section 5.4).
If the overburden is irregular, a diapir can rise actively by
halokinesis even where its roof is less dense. Diapirism can
Flat-topped occur where differential loading is imposed by relief in either
diapir crest the top of the salt (Figure 5.8(a)) or the topography (Figure 5.8
(b)). If the overburden is a flat-topped wedge, its density is
Salt greatest at the thick end of the wedge (Figure 5.8(a)), where
deep sediments have compacted more than at the thin end of
c Full model: isotropic roof the wedge. Even though the diapir is denser than its roof, the
diapir rises actively because the salt is pressurized by the
Passive lines 304 000 yr
distant thick, denser end of the wedge. If the topography
slopes, none of the overburden need be denser than salt for
Higher density an active diapir to rise (Figure 5.8(b)). This is because an
overburden is invariably denser than the same thickness of
Lower density
water or air. This differential loading creates a pressure-head
Salt flow to feed growing diapir
difference that drives salt from below the thick end of the
Fixed
0 5 km side wall overburden wedge into the active diapir.
Figure 5.10. The style of active diapirism is affected by whether its 5.3.1.2 Contractional Active Rise
sedimentary roof is layered, as shown by originally flat-topped diapiric walls.
(a) Crest of diapir arching an isotropic, or massive, roof to form two flaps Regional shortening can initiate contractional active rise of
hinging on downward-steepening thrust faults that propagated up from the salt in two ways. First, shortening adds a convergent displace-
diapir’s shoulders. (b) Crest of diapir arching an anisotropic, or layered, roof after
the same duration; white lines show thin interbeds that allow bedding-parallel ment load to the gravitational load. The sides of the diapir
slip, which promotes folding rather than faulting. (c) Full view of model in (a). converge, and the diapir narrows. Narrowing displaces the
Contours show intensity of plastic strain, where white is the highest strain.
Sediment–salt density ratio is 1.09. Finite-element models by Dan Schultz-Ela.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Pierced
a b c crestal graben
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Rotated
0 2 cm flap
Crestal graben
Emergent
diapir

Active diapir Active diapir

Figure 5.11. Three stages of active rise of an originally flat-topped salt wall, culminating in complete piercement of the highly extended roof. Traced from
physical models by Bruno Vendeville.

upper diapiric salt upward, where it may arch the roof faster
a Isotropic roof Crestal graben and higher than it would rise by halokinesis alone (Figure 5.12).
Convergence can also displace the lower diapiric salt downward,
304 000 yr
which thickens the source layer and raises the overburden
Flap thrust regionally (Figure 5.12). Salt is more likely to be forced down-
ward when the source layer is still thick because it is difficult to
force salt back into a welded source layer. Second, shortening
Salt can buckle the overburden above salt, causing it to rise up into
anticlines even if not pushed by pressurized salt (Section 4.3).
Contractional active rise is resisted by the same three
factors as is halokinetic active rise: the strength and weight of
the roof and the viscosity of the salt. The difference is that
regional shortening can create much higher stresses than can
b Layered roof Limited extension halokinetic salt rise. Thus, contractional active rise is capable
279 000 yr of lifting much thicker roofs than halokinetic active rise (Ven-
Steep limb
deville and Nilsen 1995). Shortening can thus rejuvenate a
halokinetically stable diapir having a roof too thick to be
Shortening

Flat top pushed up by buoyancy alone, or it can accelerate the rise of

Fold widens a diapir already actively growing by buoyancy.

Salt 5.3.2 Structural Style of Active Diapirs

Active rise forms two types of structures: arched roofs and
upturned collars. Arched roofs result where the salt has not
c Full model: layered roof 279 000 yr pierced to the surface, whereas upturned collars are evidence
that a formerly active diapir once broke through to the surface.
Shortening

Sediments lifted Upward salt flow

Downward salt flow
Shortening forces salt from diapir into source layer
0 5 km
Figure 5.12. Regional shortening promotes active rise in ways that depend
on properties of the diapir’s roof. (a) Above an originally flat-topped wall, an
isotropic (massive) roof arched by forming two flaps. These flaps hinged on
downward-steepening thrust faults that propagated up from the diapir’s
shoulders. The crestal graben separating the two flaps was minor compared
with an equivalent graben formed without regional shortening. (b) An
anisotropic (layered) roof merely arched into a steep-limbed box fold having
limited extension in its crest. White lines show thin interbeds that allowed
bedding-parallel slip, which promoted folding rather than faulting. (c) Full view
of model in (b). Salt in the squeezed diapir was forced upward to the arched
crest and downward back into the source layer. Contours show intensity
of plastic strain, with white being the highest strain; the color range for
plastic strain is different in each example in order to highlight particular
features. Sediment–salt density ratio was 1.09; shortening rate was 1 mm/yr.
Finite-element models by Dan Schultz-Ela.
5.3.2.1 Arched Roofs
The most diagnostic feature of active rise is a roof that has been
uplifted and arched above regional. The arched roof is a drape
fold formed by bending. The roof is typically stretched owing to
bending, which may result in thinning below seismic resolution
(Davison et al. 2000b) or in crestal normal faults (Figures 5.13
and 5.14). Arched roofs may also thin by erosion or slumping
(Figure 5.15), causing further ambiguities in interpretation.
Small-scale deformation can be widespread in arched roofs.
Response to deformation depends on strain intensity and
lithology. Toward some North Sea diapirs, chalk thins from
1,500 m on the flanks to 0 to 300 m above the diapir. Here the
chalk is pervasively fractured in as much as 40 percent of the
core interval, forming open and cemented tensile fractures,
small faults, and rarer breccias (Davison et al. 2000b). Frac-
tures in other brittle rocks, like quartz sandstones, are less
interconnected than in chalk, but breccias are common.

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 5.3 Active Diapirism

Larger-scale normal faults typically cut the arched roof of 1951, 1955; Cloos 1955; Withjack and Scheiner 1982; Sims
an active diapir if sediments have lithified enough. The sim- et al. 2013).
plest crestal fault pattern is a single offset fault slicing obliquely Normal faults above salt walls tend to align parallel to the
through the diapir. More-abundant normal faults form com- long axis of the wall. These faults can be caused by regional
plex patterns, such as a keystone graben. Modeling shows that extension or by local doming. The cross-sectional pattern
a diapir’s planform strongly influences the map pattern of its of the faults varies (Figure 5.16). Most arched roofs above
crestal faults (Link 1930; Cloos 1939; Parker and McDowell natural active diapirs (both halokinetic and contractional)
are anticlines divided into two flaps by a crestal graben
(Figure 5.16(a)). In contrast, most arched roofs in contrac-
Monocline or tional sandbox models have two flaps that hinge upward on
thrust fault
Radial or synthetic reverse faults (Figure 5.16(b)). These flap faults
subparallel steepen downward and root into the sides of the diapir. Rarer
faults in nature are diapirs having two flaps hinging on synthetic
ing
h inn normal faults (Figure 5.16(c)), or asymmetric diapirs having a
T ing single flap and a master normal fault linking the crest to the
Flap ch
Regional Ar
flank of the diapir (Figure 5.16(d)).
Pointed or Normal faults tend to form a broadly radial pattern above a
rounded crest
of stock or wall pluglike stock. Radial patterns are distinctive of diapiric
doming because they do not form by regional extension.
Figure 5.13. Diagnostic features of an active diapir, the most important of Radial faults are most common in the arched roof of an
which is a roof arched above regional. After Jackson et al. (1994). actively rising stock. The throw of radial faults decreases from

Figure 5.14. The arched roof above this diapir

Crestal graben
Strata above regional shows distinctive features of a halokinetic
Topographic bulge active diapir: (1) a bulge in the seafloor in which
2
strata rise above regional, (2) crestal extension, and
(3) thinning and onlap of strata toward the crest.
Gulf of Mexico seismic data courtesy of CGG.

3
Depth (km)

4
Salt

6
V.E. × 2 0 5 km

Headscarp Exposed salt Figure 5.15. A topographically arched roof is

Shallow subject to (a) slumping and (b) erosion. Erosion
Landslide Slump Thrust Eroded
a b erosion
leads to (c) an angular unconformity around
the diapir. This unconformity may be preserved
across the top of the diapir if active rise stops,
Active Former or preserved only on the diapir flanks if active
diapir active rise continues.
diapir

Unconformity
c Deep erosion Truncated flap

Former
active
diapir

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83
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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Figure 5.16. Four styles of faulting above active

a Antithetic crestal graben
Double flaps cSynthetic Double flaps salt walls in schematic cross sections. All these
faults strike parallel to the long axis of the wall.
Arching normal After Schultz-Ela et al. (1993).
fault

Original top
of salt

b
Synthetic reverse fault
Double flaps d Single flap
Normal fault
Arching
Regional

Future
a horst b Horst
Graben
Centerline

Ring
Fu abe
gr

Transport
tu n

Radial normal faults thrust

re
Edge of s

Stock
Lower
hinge
alt

ho ture
Ed

line
rst
g

of
Fu
e

Ring
do
med graben
roof Horst
Upper hinge line along
monocline
Figure 5.17. Radial faults form above an active diapir because, as roof hinge
strata arch and tilt outward, they extend circumferentially (hoop extension).
(a) Before arching (oblique three-dimensional view); (b) after arching
(vertical three-dimensional view, colors delineate individual fault blocks);
after Yin and Groshong (2007).

the crest to zero at the edge of the dome, where a closed hinge
line separates the dome from its surroundings (Stewart 2006;
Yin and Groshong 2007). Outward from the diapir’s crest,
structural compartments between radial faults widen.
Why do radial faults form in arched roofs? As a salt diapir
rises actively, roof strata rotate upward and radially outward
(Figure 5.17). Strata tilt outward by flexural slip radial to the
dome along the center line of each block (Yin and Groshong
2007). Roof particles move radially outward and diverge. This
circumferential extension produces radial faults unless the
sediments are too soft to break. Radial faulting intensifies as
doming proceeds. Radial faulting is greatest where a diapir’s
radius of curvature is smallest. This causes radial faults to
cluster near the ends of elliptical diapirs (Withjack and Schei-
ner 1982; Davison et al. 2000a; Stewart 2006; Sims et al. 2013).
Radial faulting above active diapirs may begin with a
graben star (Cloos 1939; Figure 5.18), or with a simpler pattern
(Yin and Groshong 2007), or with a more complex pattern
(Clausen et al. 2014). Like the letter X, one pattern has four
radiating faults defining four blocks (a horst, a graben, two
half-grabens, and no central graben) (Figure 5.19(a)). Like the
Figure 5.18. Three types of faults can form in the roof of a plug-shaped
salt stock. (1) Radial normal faults form a graben star by hoop extension.
(2) A ring graben can form by radial extension in the upper hinge of an
outward-dipping monocline. (3) A ring thrust can form by radial shortening
along the lower hinge of the monocline at the outward limit of doming.
Oblique view of physical model, courtesy of Tim Dooley.
letter Y, the other pattern has three main fault sets that
obliquely slice the dome into seven blocks (three pairs of
alternating horsts and grabens radiating from a triangular
central graben) (Figure 5.19(b)). As a roof is domed, these
master faults increase their mutual offset, which obscures the
fundamental X or Y pattern. The master faults control the
pattern of younger, smaller faults. The X and Y types of radial
faulting yield a wide variety of structural styles, depending on
where a cross section intersects a domed roof (Yin and
Groshong 2007).
Radial cross sections through a salt stock commonly inter-
sect radial faults tangentially, which confuses interpretation in
several ways. First, fault traces have apparent dips that are
much less than the actual dips of the faults. Second, fault traces
can appear more than once in a cross section. Third, fault
traces may dip toward a dome center, although fault surfaces

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 5.3 Active Diapirism

Figure 5.19. Structure

a -92.083° -92.067° -92.050° -92.033° contour maps show that
N radial faults can form
X and Y patterns in the
arched roofs of active

29.467°
-10,60
0
salt diapirs in the U.S.

-10
Gulf Coast. (a) X pattern

-10

,8 0
over Tiger Shoal diapir

,60

29.450°
(Louisiana) drawn on top

0
0
80 of T sand (after Smith
0,
-1
1988). (b) Symmetric
0 0
,6

Y pattern over Clay Neutral Extension Compression

0
-1

29.433°
Creek diapir (Texas),
00 drawn on top of the
0,4
-1 0 Wilcox Formation (after
60
0, McDowell 1951). After Yin
-1
29.417°
and Groshong (2007).
00
0 ,8
-1
-10
-10

,60
,80

0 0 1500 m
0

C.I. = 100 ft

b -96.417° -96.400° -96.383°

30.333°

-3000 Normal fault Strike-slip fault Reverse fault

-3
00
-24 0 Figure 5.20. Fault patterns above circular (upper row) and elliptical
0
-180 00
(lower row) active diapirs are controlled by different regional stress fields
indicated by arrows. After Withjack and Scheiner (1982), based on their physical and
30.317°

analytical models.
0
-240

00
-36

Diapir width strongly affects the style of compressional

-1

active diapirism (Figure 5.22, Nilsen et al. 1995). For identical

80

0
-3

00

30.300°
0
00

-3

N
amounts of shortening, the area of diapiric salt displaced
0

-2400
0 1500 m inward by compression is the same regardless of diapir width,
00
-36 C.I. = 600 ft assuming plane strain. Salt displaced inward in turn displaces
Major horst Major half-graben the same area of salt upward beneath the arching roof. How-
Major graben Central graben ever, salt displaced upward above a wide diapir causes little
Master normal fault Minor normal fault arching because the displaced salt spreads beneath a wide
roof. Conversely, salt displaced upward above a narrow diapir
causes severe arching because the displaced salt is concentrated
actually dip away from the dome center. Fourth, it is difficult beneath a narrow roof.
to differentiate crestal faults from surrounding radial faults in
a cross section. 5.3.2.2 Upturned Collars
Cloos (1968) recognized that far-field (regional) stresses Stratal upturns have long been interpreted from wells on the
can affect faults induced by doming. A fault can be subdued flanks of salt diapirs, even though many of these collars are too
or enhanced, depending on its orientation to far-field stresses. narrow to be seismically resolved (Hanna 1953; Atwater and
Withjack and Scheiner (1982) modeled how regional extension Forman 1959). These upturned units typically comprise brec-
or regional shortening affected the pattern of faults above ciated and sheared deep-marine shale and follow the diapir
gentle active domes (Figure 5.20). The radial pattern of normal margin upward in discordant contact with much younger
faults is suppressed where far-field stresses dominate local strata (Figure 5.23). Commonly known as shale sheath, these
doming stresses. Instead of radiating, normal faults strike collars were for decades attributed to drag-induced shear
perpendicular to the regional extension direction regardless against a diapir rising with respect to surrounding sediments
of the shape of the underlying diapir (Sims et al. 2013). (Bornhauser 1969). However, finite-element models suggest
Arched roofs can occur in both halokinetic and contrac- that slip along the diapir contact affects only extremely weak
tional active diapirs. Each setting has a different combination overburdens having high overpressures and multiple ductile
of forces, which can influence the structural style (Figure 5.21). interlayers (Schultz-Ela 2003).
Some features of arched roofs are diagnostic of contractional Among the first to question the drag dogma were Johnson
active rise, but none clearly indicate halokinetic active rise. and Bredeson (1971) and Worrall and Snelson (1989). They
Most arguments for halokinetic active rise thus focus more concluded that folding, thickness changes, and unconformities
on the absence of contractional features than on the presence adjoining Louisiana diapirs reflected near-surface deformation
of halokinetic features. of rising diapirs. More recent work (Rowan et al. 2003;

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85
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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

a Postkinematic crestal a Before shortening

thinning, no crestal graben Extensional
kink band

Wide Narrow
Arch relief < 500 m diapir diapir
Salt

Tall, narrow
arch
b After shortening Low, wide
arch
Weld
b
Extensional Crestal
bedding-plane Salt displaced
graben Synkinematic upward
slip
Truncation crestal thinning
Roof thinner than
Onlap threshold thickness
Arch relief > 500 m Salt displaced inward
Convex-upward
salt crest Figure 5.22. The same amount of regional shortening affects wide and
Narrow aureole of narrow diapiric walls differently. Diapirs that are initially tall and narrow
upturned strata rise higher and faster than diapirs that are initially wide. The same principle
applies to wide and narrow stocks, but areas of displaced salt do not balance
as they do in walls. Concept by Vendeville and Nilsen (1995).

Weld North South Figure 5.23. Upturned

Not the surface flaps, sometimes called
Contractional
c Fold may
be boxlike Erosional kink band Contractional V
shale sheaths, can
separate some diapirs
truncation bedding-plane slip from discordant younger
Onlap
strata. This Oligocene flap
Postkinematic roof is onlapped by upper
Age of shortening Oligocene and Miocene
Thick prekinematic strata at the contact of
roof W White Castle diapir
(Louisiana). After Johnson
and Bredeson (1971).
Strongly
Sha

V
convex-
Passive rise
le s

upward Z
salt crest
hea

AA
th ?

Weld BB
Wide aureole of Salt OL1
7.2
?
Frio

upturned strata OL
17.
5
Figure 5.21. Diagnostic features of arching produced by (a) differential O O OL1 OL
OL2

OL

L2 L2 9 18
compaction, (b) halokinesis, and (c) active rise. 1 0
22
3

Schultz-Ela 2003) has determined that these salt-flank upturns
are a type of sediment flap, formed by active diapirism.
When an active diapir breaks through to the surface, its
broken roof is typically shouldered aside to be eroded or
preserved as steeply dipping flaps on the flanks of the salt
(Figures 5.3(e) and 5.15). These flaps are the evidence of the
final event of a former active phase that ended in an exposed,
passively rising diapir. Flaps typically dip parallel to the salt
face. Flaps can be vertical if breakthrough produced a vertically
rising passive diapir, or even overturned if salt broke out as an
extruding salt sheet. The wavelength of flap folds depends on
the thickness of the sediment package involved in the flap.
A thick wedge of strata produces a wider zone of deformation
and broader topographic halo than a thin wedge folded to the
same degree of rotation (Rowan et al. 2003).
Flap sediments may be intensely deformed by diapirism for
three reasons. First, the sediments may be weakly consolidated,
so rotating them to vertical or overturned dips should involve
internal slumping, shearing, and loss of cohesion. Flaps would
probably be completely disaggregated if not for being buttressed
against younger sediments deposited while the flap rotated.
Second, outward movement of flaps shouldered aside by salt

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Perched flap
Perched flap
Salt diapir
Megaflap
Figure 5.24. Wedges of sediment that originally onlapped an emergent
salt diapir become deformed into flaps as the diapir continues to grow.
These flaps form on two scales: (1) megaflaps are kilometers wide and
rest directly on the salt; (2) perched flaps are hundreds of meters wide and
rest on older overburden strata.
stocks circumferentially stretches the flaps, which thin by plastic
extension. Third, flaps may be overpressured if composed of
mudrocks and connected to deep, overpressured fluids.
Brecciated shale around and within flaps has been termed
salt-dome breccia (Kerr and Kopp 1958). Cores show pervasive
fracturing within shale on the flanks of some salt diapirs
(Hanna 1953). The brecciated shale is reportedly overpres-
sured, but this damage zone can allow water to rise through it.
Three types of upturns form in different settings. The first
is the basal megaflap (Giles and Rowan 2012, Graham et al.
2012). These thick sequences of sediment are upturned at the
base of a diapir and thin upward along the diapir flank (Fig-
ures 5.24, 5.25, 5.26, and 5.27). The basal megaflap can pinch
out or be eroded partway up the diapir flank, but in other
instances the megaflap can continue all the way up to the crest
of the diapir, and even overturn beneath the breakout of a salt
sheet. Basal megaflaps form as the source layer inflates to form
a pillow or anticline, which is then broken through by active
diapirism. Sediments in a flap typically thin stratigraphically
and by strain as the flap rotates.
Basal megaflaps are most likely to originate where a salt
contact dips moderately, allowing a wedge of strata to onlap
across the diapir crest and be folded upward by the rising salt
(Schultz-Ela 2003) (Figure 5.28). The style of folding depends
on the depth, rock strength, anisotropy of the overburden,
diapir shape and tilt, and molding ratio (balance of
aggradation and salt-rise rates during folding).
The second type of flap is perched flaps that lie partway up
a diapir flank (Figure 5.24). Perched flaps are typically much
smaller and thinner than basal megaflaps and form when a
rising diapir breaks through a thinned roof. The perched
flap can mark when active diapirism began after lengthy react-
ive growth (Figure 5.3). Alternatively, the flap represents
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5.3 Active Diapirism
2.8 km
Salt
37 Myr
B
me asal
fla ga-
p
85 Myr
Same volumes, different areas
Figure 5.25. During active diapirism, a roof of unlithified strata can be
thinned by extension as the wedge is rotated by rising salt. The cross-sectional
area of the purple polygon shrank over time even though its volume remained
constant. Area was lost because of hoop extension as the diapir expanded
outward. The roof gradually rotated to form an upturned basal megaflap.
Finite-element ELFEN model by Maria Nikolinakou; the overburden was a
poro-elastoplastic microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) rheology, and the salt
was viscoplastic.
breakthrough following a brief phase of burial during down-
building (Section 5.4). Perched flaps formed during downbuild-
ing are part of larger halokinetic sequences (Section 5.4.2.1).
Finite-element modeling simulates the effects of changing
rates of salt flux and sedimentation. Perched flaps are likely
where aggradation rates vary greatly and depositional hiatuses
allow time for folding before the wedge becomes too thick and
strong to bend (Schultz-Ela 2003). Fast aggradation or slow
salt flux causes sediment to encroach and onlap farther across
the salt, which increases the potential for folding and uplift of a
roof but can eventually bury a diapir and stop its rise. Con-
versely, slow aggradation or fast salt flux causes the diapir to
bulge outward along vertical to inward-dipping walls, which
shortens or inhibits wedges and hence perched flaps.
Third, some flaps form as the limbs of an injection fold,
which is an active diapir formed in the crests of contractional
anticlines (Beloussov 1959). As an anticline amplifies, its mobile
core is tectonically pressurized by displacement loading imposed
by the tightening fold limbs. If the overburden is thin enough,
the salt core breaks out actively to the surface. Diapirs formed
by fold injection have an ancient pedigree. Such diapirs were
modeled by Lohest (1921) and Torrey and Fralich (1926), and
injection folding was regarded by Stille (1925) as the main way
of forming a salt stock. The idea was neglected for many
decades, but injection folding is being recognized as an
important type of diapir in fold belts. A diapir formed in this
way is typically far smaller than the injection fold from which
it emerged (Figure 5.29).
87
 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

a Seafloor
b
1

2
Diapir
Depth (km)

3
Basal
megaflap
Salt
4

6
0 3 km
Halokinetic unconformity

c V.E. × 1.5

Emirhan Fm.

30.71°N
50
70 Karacaören Fm.

70

30.70°N
30
Karayün Fm.

N
40 30.69°N

0 1 km
L. Oligocene evaporites
37.30°E © 2015 Basarsoft; © 2015 Google; Image © 2015 DigitalGlobe 37.35°E

Figure 5.26. Examples of upturned flaps flanking originally active diapirs. (a) Perched flaps separated by halokinetic unconformities, northern Gulf of Mexico;
seismic image courtesy of CGG, (b) Basal megaflap above allochthonous salt, northern Gulf of Mexico; seismic image courtesy of TGS. (c) Basal megaflaps, especially well
developed on the northeast side of Karayün minibasin (Sivas basin, central Turkey); satellite image from Google Earth shows an oblique erosional cross section
through the minibasin, which is flanked by walls of lower Oligocene evaporites; geologic boundaries after Ringenbach et al. (2013).

88
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 5.3 Active Diapirism

No
rth a Maximum onlap on
diapir crest Reference point
6

Salt

b Reference datum

n
t tio
es lu
cr sso
12

i
td
la
F
900
9
1500
uth
So 3000 6
5000 Source
t 7000 layer
res
llowc 10,000
of pi Salt
sion pedestal
Ero
12,000
c Stretched and thinned older layers

15,000 18

Contours in feet 15
below sea level
12
Claiborne–Wilcox–Midway Groups
Navarro–Taylor Groups Me 9
ga
fla
Austin Chalk p 6
Upper Eagle Ford Group
Lower Eagle Ford–Woodbine Groups
Washita–Fredericksburg Groups
0 1 km
Paluxy Formation
Figure 5.28. Evolution of a basal megaflap that becomes onlapped by
Massive anhydrite younger strata in the contact zone of a passive diapir. Numbers refer to
synkinematic strata. Finite-element forward model by Dan Schultz-Ela.
Hosston–Cotton Valley Formations
Gilmer–Norphlet Formations
Louann Salt (Figure 5.31(a)). In contrast, the footwall of the diapir is the
subvertical limb of a deep minibasin. The squeezed diapir may
Figure 5.27. Basal megaflaps on the flanks of Hainesville diapir (East Texas)
were uplifted and eroded, producing an angular unconformity on the flanks of
extrude allochthonous salt (Figure 5.31(b)).
the dome. After Jackson and Seni (1984). Where preserved, flaps are diagnostic of active diapirism.
However, they are easily destroyed by erosion or slumping
away as they rise and steepen. Many past phases of active
diapirism may have gone unrecognized because the flaps were
Physical modeling elucidates how injection folds might obliterated.
evolve (Figure 5.30). The crest of a buckling anticline extends
by normal faulting, forming a weak zone that is eventually
actively pierced by a diapir of pressurized salt. If the anticline is
5.3.3 Apparent Active Rise: Arching of a
symmetric, the diapir pierces vertically through its hinge zone. Diapir’s Roof by Compaction
If the anticline is asymmetric, the steeper limb of the fold A distinctive feature of an active diapir is a roof arched above
presses into the source layer as a sagging minibasin. The the surroundings. However, roofs can also be arched purely by
gentler limb of the fold eventually overthrusts the sagging compaction even above an inactive diapir. Two aspects of
minibasin and shears the intervening diapir toward the over- sediment compaction contribute to this arching. Drape com-
ridden minibasin. The result is a shallow hanging wall com- paction arches strata where sediments of varying thickness
posed of deep strata raised by overthrusting the diapir compact by an equal percentage (Billingsley 1982). Thus,

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Contractional anticline Figure 5.29. The core

of this salt anticline was
pinched shut by regional
a Seaward
Slight
Landward
Inclined slab
shortening, during which injection of older strata
the salt core broke out as Asymmetric
an injection fold, forming growth syncline Diapiric salt
at crest
a small diapir at its crest. 3
Campos basin, Brazil.
Seismic data courtesy of PGS.

Small diapir

Two-way time (s)

Welded neck of anticline
4
Concordant
limbs of
injection
fold
Deep
Anticline limb minibasin
5

Base of salt
Pedestal of
salt anticline
0 5 km
Salt weld

b Seaward Landward
Inclined older strata in hanging wall
Salt
extrusion Eroded

Prekinematic Synkinematic
Figure 5.30.
a Prekinematic overburden Asymmetric injection
folds form as diapiric salt
thrusts over a deepening Concordant
Salt limbs of
asymmetric growth
syncline in its footwall. injection
b From a physical model fold
by Brun and Fort (2004,
figure 12). Welded Asymmetric
injection fold growth syncline 0 3 cm

Figure 5.31. Diapirs interpreted to have formed as injection folds during

c moderate regional shortening. (a) Geoseismic section of a weak injection fold
in the Kwanza basin (offshore Angola); the crest of an otherwise concordant
salt anticline is locally diapiric. (b) A strong injection fold expelled a salt
extrusion as the diapir was overthrust by its hanging wall in a physical model.
After Brun and Fort (2004, figure 11).

d Injection
fold
Growth syncline

Shortening
Salt
overthrust
during compaction, thinner sediments in the diapir roof sub-
side less than adjacent thicker sediments, thereby arching the
roof (Figure 5.32(a), (b)). Folding by drape compaction
decreases upward, resulting in an apparent growth anticline
even in postkinematic strata above a deep static anticline
(Figure 5.32(c)). In contrast, differential compaction results
from the juxtaposition of incompressible crystalline salt in a
diapir against compacting sediments next to the diapir. Salt
does not compact during deep burial and even expands slightly
as it experiences heating. In contrast, the overburden next to
the diapir subsides by compaction, once again arching sedi-
ments above the diapir (Figure 5.32(d), (e)). The edge of the
arched roof overlies the edge of the diapir.
Compactional arching is widespread and marked. Because
of the additive effects of drape compaction and differential
compaction, most diapirs have arched roofs, irrespective of
whether or not they actively rose while the roof accumulated.
The amount of arching increases with the height of the
diapir and decreases with the degree of undercompaction
(Figure 5.33(a)). These calculations assume that every incre-
ment of sedimentation is followed by an increment of com-
paction. The amount of arching also increases with the

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 5.3 Active Diapirism

Drape compaction Differential compaction Figure 5.32. Drape compaction and differential
compaction overlap, but the terms make a useful
a Before compaction
Datum
d Before compaction
Datum
distinction between (a)–(c) compacting layers
varying laterally in thickness (drape compaction)
and (d), (e) adjacent rocks compacting by different
h1 h1 amounts (differential compaction). (a)–(c) After
Billingsley (1982).
h2 h2
Salt
Deep static anticline
Φ = 0% h2
Onlapping postkinematic interval

b After 30% compaction

Compactional drape
Φuc = 45%
Datum

0.7h1
e After 30% compaction
Datum
0.7h2 0.7h2
Deep static anticline 0.7h1 Edge of arch

c Apparent growth anticline

Weakly compacted
Salt
increases downward
Drape compaction

Φ = 0%
0.7h2

Φc = 21%
Deep static anticline
Weld
Strongly compacted Edge of salt pedestal

Figure 5.33. Differential compaction around a

a 450 b1400 diapir arches its roof to produce topographic relief
that depends on roof thickness, diapir height, and
ted the depth/porosity ratio. (a) For a fixed roof
pac
om ed thickness of 1 km, compaction generates
400
rma
lc 1200 act
No o mp increasing topographic relief for increasing diapir
rmal c
Topographic relief (m)

Topographic relief (m)

350 d 1000 No heights. (b) For a fixed diapir height of 5 km,

cte compaction generates increasing topographic
mpa ted
erco pac
300 Und 800 om relief for increasing roof thickness. Normal
rc
Unde compaction creates more arching than
undercompaction. The analysis here uses the
250 600
depth/solidity functions for shale of Baldwin and
Butler (1985). Analytical models by Maria Nikolinakou.
200 Roof thickness = 1 km 400 Diapir height = 5 km

150 200

100 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10
Diapir height (km) Roof thickness (km)

thickness of the diapir’s roof (Figure 5.33(b)). This analysis decrease in structural relief of an arched roof is com-
suggests that compaction alone can produce arched roofs patible not only with compaction but also with a dying
having relief of as much as about 1 km where thick roofs occur active diapir in which the pressure drive declines to an
above tall diapirs. In most geologic settings, relief of a few equilibrium level.
hundred meters is more typical. By contrast, an active origin should be seriously considered
How can we distinguish between arching caused by if an arched roof has structural relief of more than a few
compaction and arching caused by active diapirism? The hundred meters above regional (1 km in special cases,
surest approach is to assume that all gentle arching above Figure 5.33), which is the maximum relief estimated for differ-
a diapir is caused by compaction because its effects are ential compaction around a diapir. Similarly, any signs of
inescapable (Figure 5.32). An apparent growth anticline shortening in the roof (Figure 5.21) point to an active contri-
above a diapir is not a reliable criterion. A gradual upward bution to arching.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Box 5.1– Bryant Canyon Turned Inside-Out

a
27.0°

Inverted Salt
canyon
N
b
Minibasins

Canyon
erosion
Saddle

26.5°
Canyon
c inversion
Upturned flap

Salt
upwells

Figure 5.35. How salt upwelling can invert a canyon. (a) Flat-lying
overburden above salt. (b) Erosion of a submarine canyon replaces the
sedimentary load with less-dense water. (c) As a result, salt rises below
26.0° the canyon floor and inverts it as younger sediments accumulate.

of the Sigsbee Escarpment as an unconfined fan and associated

Bryant
Fan Bryant
Sigsbee Canyon
Escarpment
-92.5° 0 20 km -92.0°
Map data: http://www.geomapapp.org/, Ryan et al, 2009
Figure 5.34. Salt arching the floor of a canyon can invert and destroy it.
This bathymetric map of the submarine Bryant Canyon (northern Gulf of
Mexico) shows the dashed trace of its former course down the lower
continental slope to breach the Sigsbee Escarpment. Where it was
shallowly buried, the salt canopy bowed up the former canyon floor and
inverted the topography, leaving only a vestigial canyon. Where the
canopy was loaded by deep minibasins, the canyon floor did not invert.
Bathymetry from GeoMapApp, canyon course from Lee et al. (1996).
Erosion can trigger diapirism by thinning the overburden and
removing its weight from the salt. This process can occur when a
canyon cuts into flat-lying strata or when erosion bevels the crest
of an anticline. Bryant Canyon in the northern Gulf of Mexico is
an advanced stage of the former process, although this is not
evident from the present-day bathymetry. The Pleistocene Bry-
ant Canyon was fed by a late Wisconsinan delta of the ancestral
Mississippi River at the modern shelf margin. The canyon incised
across the Sigsbee salt canopies and emerged in an embayment
channel–levee complex on the continental rise (Figure 5.34). The
fan contains more than 1,100 m of Pleistocene strata, which
suggests a large supply canyon. The vestigial canyon incising
the fan is as deep as 400 m just inboard of the Sigsbee Escarp-
ment. Remarkably, though, Bryant Canyon has been largely des-
troyed upstream of the first 15 km of incised salt canopy. Some
segments of the former canyon are preserved as subtle depres-
sions or chains of minibasins. Other segments are flat or even
have positive relief. Minibasins guided the path of the incising
canyon, and that erosion breached the saddles between the
minibasins. After the canyon was cut, the thick minibasins
remained as depressions. In contrast, the saddles were underlain
by culminations in the salt canopy, where salt was only thinly
buried. Because of this differential loading, salt welled up in
these saddles, arching the floor of the canyon and everting it
inside-out (Figure 5.35). Eventually rise of the canyon floor des-
troyed or subdued the canyon in patches along its length. Salt-
tectonic inversion thus healed the effects of canyon erosion and
subdued the relief of the seafloor. The now-discontinuous path of
Bryant Canyon can still be traced by the seismic character of its
chaotic, discontinuous, or onlapping fill.
Key references: Lee et al. (1996); Suter and Berryhill (1985); Winker (1993).

5.4 Passive Diapirism diapirism began (Figure 5.36). This process, a form of active
diapirism, is known to occur if the diapir roof is relatively thin
5.4.1 Mechanism of Passive Diapirism (Section 5.3.1.1). However, rising through a thick, strong over-
5.4.1.1 Historical Review burden by gravity alone is mechanically implausible for two
Before 1933, salt diapirs were universally thought to rise reasons. First, the diapir must force its way through a much
through thick sedimentary rocks that accumulated before stronger prekinematic overburden, a process as difficult as

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 5.4 Passive Diapirism

Figure 5.36. Schematic

a Deposition of a salt layer rise of a diapir through its a Thickness
Crest of diapir
Surface
thick overburden by the
process of upbuilding. Height
In this portrayal, the salt
was thought to be too Base of diapir
strong to rise until it had b
b Burial of the salt layer by
additional sedimentation been buried and heated Subsidence Down-
until it could flow by building
creep. This notion is
rheologically unrealistic
because salt flows readily
c
at surface temperatures.
The depiction would
entail a massive room
problem as the diapir is

c Growth of the instability of the salt layer

emplaced, as well as
insufficient force to
d
penetrate any lithified
overburden. After Turcotte
and Schubert (2002).

Figure 5.37. A downbuilding (passive) diapir grows in height by maintaining

its crest at or near the sedimentary surface while its base sinks along with
the surrounding sediments. Forward kinematic model after Hudec and Jackson (2011).
d Formation of salt domes
accumulates above the salt. Most of the world’s tall salt domes
and walls spent most of their histories as passive diapirs.

5.4.1.2 Initiation of Passive Diapirs

driving a putty nail through a wooden board (Wade 1931).
Second, the volume of overburden rock displaced by the
diapir’s volume is largely unaccounted for – an anomaly
equivalent to the room problem in pluton emplacement.
Barton (1933, p. 1029) termed this process upthrusting,
whereby “the base of the salt core is regarded as stationary
and the crest is regarded as uplifted.” Aware of the mechanical
implausibility of upthrusting (now more commonly known as
upbuilding), he turned diapirism on its head, so to speak, by
discerning that “the crest of the salt core is regarded as station-
ary and the base is regarded as moving down.” This elegant
insight envisaged a diapir growing syndepositionally, main-
taining its crest near the sediment surface, while its base sank,
along with the surrounding sediments accumulating in the
basin. Barton (1933) termed this process downbuilding, which
is synonymous with passive diapirism (Nelson 1991; Vende-
ville and Jackson 1992a).
Downbuilding solves both major mechanical problems of
upbuilding. Because the diapir’s crest is continually emergent
(except for ephemeral veneers of sediment), little country rock
is displaced or lifted (Figure 5.37). There is no room problem.
As a result, in cross section a downbuilding diapir cuts across
many kilometers of thickness of strong overburden, but the
piercement is only apparent. Sedimentary strata may onlap the
flank of the exposed diapir, but negligible permanent roof
Passive diapirism can occur in any tectonic setting. However,
for passive diapirism to begin, salt must be at the surface.
Passive diapirism can initiate very shortly after salt deposition,
sourced from salt that remained exposed as surrounding areas
began to be buried. However, generally salt must break
through its overburden to reach the surface and emerge as a
passive diapir.
The most common way for salt to reach the surface is by
active diapirism (Section 5.3.1). This is especially likely after a
long phase of reactive diapirism, where extension has established
a load gradient and weakened the roof (Figure 5.3, Section 5.2).
However, the active phase may also be triggered by regional
shortening or by sedimentary topography (Figure 5.25).
Passive diapirs can also be initiated by deep erosion of an
anticline crest, which exposes much of its salt core. An early
stage of this process is shown by Cardona diapir in the Ebro
foreland basin of the Spanish Pyrenees. The diapir is less than
300 m high and wide but rests on a salt anticline 1,900 m high
and 7,000 m wide (Sans and Koyi 2001) (Figure 5.38). This
mismatch in size between a small diapir and a large anticline is
typical of diapirs formed from injection folds. The late Eocene
Cardona salt was deposited in the Ebro foreland basin after
shortening in the Pyrenees had already started in the Late
Cretaceous (Puigdefabregas et al. 1992). However, the thick
prekinematic sequence in the anticline (Figure 5.38) shows that
shortening reached this part of the Ebro foreland only during
or after deposition of the Oligocene Solsona Formation. Other
diapirs are scarce here, and other major anticlines in the Ebro
basin have salt cores close to piercing, but their overburdens
are too thick to be pierced by halokinetic active diapirs.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Pinós-Cardona anticline Figure 5.38. Erosion of an anticline crest can

trigger the rise of a small diapir. Cardona diapir
South-southeast North-northwest (Spain) breached the unroofed crest of the
Cardona diapir much larger Pinós–Cardona anticline. After Sans
Foreland and Koyi (2001).
Marba
Marba Alberto
Llardella 1 Cardona
Topography

Solsona Formation
Oligocene
0 1 km
Castelltallat Formation
V.E. × 1
Barbastro and Surla Formations
Eocene
Cardona evaporites

Future erosion rate backward indicates that the Cardona diapir

a erosion
level
Salt
b ling during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The folds
Shortening
Unroofing
c unconformity
Shortening
Extension
d Rotational
subsidence
Dissolution
Unroofing unconformity tilts inward
Figure 5.39. Erosional unroofing of a buckling salt anticline triggers a
diapiric wall. (a) An immature salt anticline. (b) The mature salt anticline’s
crest thins by extension, with the future erosion level marked by the wavy line.
(c) The mature salt anticline‘s crest thins further by erosion, breaching the
underlying salt. (d) Escape and passive rise of a diapir deflates the unsupported
salt anticline, tilting inward the erosional surface (unroofing unconformity).
Subsidence of the anticline’s limbs creates local extension, which must
be balanced by shortening elsewhere. After Coward and Stewart (1995).
Sans and Koyi (2001) estimated that the Cardona diapir
pierced its overburden when erosion had thinned its roof
to a threshold thickness of about 300 m, at which point the
diapir actively broke through it. Extrapolating the present
pierced only 2 Myr ago.
Later stages of erosional initiation of passive diapirs are
common in the Zechstein basin of the southern North Sea.
Salt-cored anticlines began to grow by gravity-induced buck-
amplified further in the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene during
inversion and thermally induced regional tilting, which
restored the Lower Permian strata to horizontal (Coward and
Stewart 1995; Stewart and Coward 1995, 1996). The North
German basin was also shortened and deeply eroded in the
Early Cretaceous and less so in the early Paleogene (Mohr et al.
2005). Mesozoic erosion cut deeply into the anticlines, and salt
tectonics transformed them to diapiric walls. Two processes
thinned the anticline crests (Coward and Stewart 1995; Stewart
and Coward 1995). Some crests were thinned by extension as
their limbs steepened and failed along weak beds such as the
Röt Halite, which allowed the salt core to intrude the crest as a
reactive diapir (Figure 5.39(a), (b)). The most potent trigger
for diapirism was erosional breaching, which beveled the dip-
ping fold limbs (Figure 5.39(c)). Once the salt had been
breached, it was expelled as a diapir, which drained the anti-
cline’s salt core. Deprived of salt support, the fold limbs sub-
sided by rotating inward and unfolded back to horizontal
(Figure 5.39(d)). The originally horizontal unroofing uncon-
formity also rotated inward and cut deeper toward the salt wall
(Figure 5.40).
5.4.1.3 Growth of Passive Diapirs
In order for a passive diapir to grow, salt within it must be
pressurized enough to flow upward at the sediment surface.
This pressure may be generated in at least three ways
(Figure 5.41). First, if the average density of overburden above
the source layer is greater than that of salt, salt is then forced to
the surface. Second, the salt diapir may be laterally shortened,

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causing salt to rise at the surface by displacement loading.
Third, salt may be loaded by sedimentary topography, for
example, near the toe of a continental slope or within a graben
having topographic relief.
Where a passive salt stock extrudes faster than it dissolves,
emergent salt swells to form a bun-shaped topographic dome
(Talbot 1998; Dooley et al. 2015). The dynamic pressure
exerted by rising salt builds a dynamic bulge in these summit
domes up to about 600 m in relief in the Zagros fold belt.
A passive diapir rises as sediments accumulate around its
margin. In most environments sedimentation is episodic, so
the diapir is periodically buried beneath a sedimentary veneer
during rapid sedimentation. Each burial triggers a brief period
of active diapirism, during which the diapir breaks through
the ephemeral sedimentary veneer and continues to grow
by downbuilding. Passive diapirs thus have three growth
modes: (1) true passive diapirism, when the salt is emergent;
(2) temporary diapir burial after sediments aggrade faster
than the diapir crest rises; and (3) active piercement as aggra-
dation is outpaced by diapiric rise (Jackson et al. 1988, 1994).
These three processes are repeated as cycles that keep the
crest of the diapir at or near the sediment surface during
growth, so that the overall process is one of downbuilding.
This complex history turns out to have important implica-
tions for sedimentary structures adjacent to passive diapirs
(Section 5.4.2.1).
5.4.1.4 Diapiric Freeboard
A diapir’s freeboard is its relief above the surrounding plain
(Talbot 1998). Most emergent diapirs around the world have
freeboards less than 200 m (Davison et al. 1996a). An exception
0
Cenozoic
Two-way time (s)
Unr
oof
ing
1 unc
onf
orm Cretaceous
ity Zechstein salt
Triassic–Jurassic
2 Each halokinetic sequence records one episode of burial,
Pre-Zechstein
0 5 km
Figure 5.40. A diapir triggered in the manner of that in Figure 5.39 has
a diagnostic inward tilt of the unroofing unconformity. Traced from a seismic
section in Stewart (2006).
Displaced
a b salt c mechanisms: (a) density inversion in which the
ρo ρs
ρo > ρs Driven by displacement loading
Driven by density inversion
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5.4 Passive Diapirism
to this global trend is the diapirs in the Zagros fold belt, which
build unusually high freeboards because of regional shortening
induced by collision of the Arabian and Iranian plates and the
preponderance of dense carbonates in the overburden (Talbot
2005). Another exception is the unusually high freeboards
of 400 m or more of some diapirs on Axel Heiberg Island
(Arctic Canada). Depending on the proportion of anhydrite–
carbonate to halite at depth within the diapirs, which is
unknown, these high-standing diapirs could be elevated by
mild post-Eurekan compression or purely by halokinesis
(Harrison and Jackson 2014a, b). Theoretical diapiric free-
boards can be calculated assuming static, thick salt in a hori-
zontal source layer and particular densities and thicknesses
for salt and overburden. At static equilibrium, an emergent
salt diapir is supported by the weight of the surrounding
overburden on the source layer (Talbot 2005), so that
ρs ghs ¼ ρo gho
where ρs and hs are the density and height of a salt diapir above
its base, ρo and ho are the density and thickness of its overbur-
den, and g is the acceleration due to gravity.
5.4.2 Structural Style of Passive Diapirs
Because there is no room problem, passive or downbuilding
diapirs are noted for the mild deformation of their country
rocks. The diapir resembles a cutout stamped out of encasing
layered strata, whether in vertical section (Figures 5.42 and
5.43) or in horizontal view (Figure 5.44). Deformation in the
overburden is typically limited to subtle thickness changes
related to flow of underlying salt and upturned or sheared
strata near the diapir contact.
5.4.2.1 Halokinetic Sequences
The complex rise history of most passive diapirs means that
they undergo multiple phases of active rise, as ephemeral roofs
are successively pierced. These repeated phases of uplift and
breakout each produce tilted beds, which can (if preserved)
stack to form halokinetic sequences adjacent to the diapir.
breakout, and downbuilding.
The type area for halokinetic sequences is La Popa basin in
Mexico (Lawton and Giles 1997; Giles and Lawton 2002). Here
halokinetic sequences contain a systematic stratigraphy. Each
sequence begins and ends with an angular unconformity that
Figure 5.41. Passive diapirs can grow by three
average density of the overburden is greater
than that of the salt; (b) displacement loading,
in which lateral contraction squeezes diapiric salt
upward; and (c) topographic relief, in which the
thickness of diapiric salt is less than the thickness
of the overburden.
Sediment wedge, ρo
Water wedge, ρw
ρo > ρw
95
 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Figure 5.42. Diagnostic features of a passive

diapir, the most important of which are the
Residual soil stratal cutoffs and paucity of deformation in
or salt exposed the country rock. After Jackson et al. (1994).

ge
e flan
siv
Upturned tru
Ex
flap ss
ne
Regional
h i ck
e t es
btl ng
Su cha
Flat crest of
stock or wall

Figure 5.43. Seismic examples of the cutout

a appearance of (a) a leaning passive diapir and
(b) an hourglass-shaped diapir. Both diapirs exhibit
1 flaps of various scales along their flanks, indicating
phases of active diapirism. Northern Gulf of Mexico
seismic data courtesy of CGG.
2
Depth (km)

3
Salt

0 5 km
V.E. × 1
Crestal graben
b2

3 Salt
Depth (km)

Base allochthonous salt 0 3 km

V.E. × 1

grades outward into correlative conformities (Figures 5.26,
5.45, and 5.46). Halokinetic sequences like these tend to be
only a few hundred meters wide, but in some parts of the
world they are several kilometers wide, possibly as a result of
lateral shortening.
The unconformities bracket two end-member types of
halokinetic sequences, known as hook and wedge, as distin-
guished in Table 5.1 and Figure 5.47(a), (b).
These stratigraphic variations depend on changes in
topography above an emergent or shallowly buried diapir.

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 5.4 Passive Diapirism

Figure 5.44. Exposed passive diapirs in the

a Great Kavir (Iran) have discordant cutouts of strata
against their flanks. (a) Aerial photograph of a
smooth, circular stock, Dome 14; after Jackson et al.
(1990, figure 1.42). (b) Satellite image of a ragged,
irregular wall, Dome 51; from Google Earth.
34.96°

34.92°

0 2 km
53.72° 53.79°
Center 34.941°N, 53.754°E
b 34.83°

Rising
salt N

Wasting
salt

Sharp, discordant contact

34.81°
0 1 km
53.20° 53.22°
Center 34.818°N, 53.216°E

Topographic relief increases and decreases as sedimenta-
tion rate fluctuates rapidly against a background of slowly
varying rates of salt flux (Rowan et al. 2003). Halokinetic
sequences can be stacked into two types of composite
sequences: tabular and tapered (Figure 5.47(c), (d)). Hook
halokinetic sequences stack to form tabular composite
sequences during slow aggradation. Wedge halokinetic
sequences stack to form tapered composite sequences
during fast aggradation. Well-exposed examples of a
tapered composite sequence in the Zagros fold belt are
shown in Figure 5.48.
The width of a deformation halo around a diapir is
expected to correlate loosely with lithology and aggradation
rate; the latter affects the thickness of the halokinetic wedge
(Rowan et al. 2003). Slow, mud-dominated sedimentation is
likely to result in halokinetic aureoles about 200 to 300 m wide,
where sands thin from regional thickness only near the diapir.
Fast sedimentation should be associated with halokinetic

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

a
100.80°W 100.75°W Viento Formation

Adjuntas Formation (Eocene)

Upper Sandstone Member

110 99
El

Maastrichtian–Paleocene
G 114 Upper Mudstone Member

Potrerillos Formation
or El Upper Gordo lentil
do 102 Papalote 155
an 115 Delgado Sandstone
tic 90 180
lin
e Middle Siltstone Member
Middle Gordo lentil
26.05°N Lower Mudstone Member
Lower Gordo lentil
Lower Siltstone Member

Muerto Sandstone (Maastrichtian)

78 Parras Shale (Campanian)
110
84 N
El Minas Viejas salt
100 Gordo
90 Axial trace of folds
124 100
Limit of diapiric deformation
Dip
114 Rotation of flank strata
0 3 km
26.00°N

b
West-northwest East-southeast
Hook
0 500 m halokinetic
sequences
Cusp at contact
Eroded crest

El Papalote 4 5
diapir
2
Composite 3
halokinetic
sequence

Wedge
halokinetic
sequences
Figure 5.45. Halokinetic sequences in the 500- to 1,000-m-wide contact zone around El Papalote and El Gordo diapirs (La Popa basin, Mexico). Strata are
locally overturned in hook halokinetic sequences; angular unconformities bounding the sequences are subvertical and grade into correlative conformities within
about 250 m of the diapir’s contact. (a) Map view, (b) cross section. After Rowan et al. (2003).

aureoles about 600 to 800 m wide, where sands onlap and eventu-
ally cover the diapir. Diapirs growing along contractional anti-
clines could have deformation aureoles as much as 3 km wide.
5.4.2.2 Controls on Cross-Sectional Shapes of Passive Diapirs
After a diapir emerges at the surface it changes growth
dynamics. The salt becomes exposed to dissolution or
erosion and is in contact with sediments accumulating
around the diapir. The competition between rising salt and
aggrading sediments is the main control of the cross-
sectional shape of a passive diapir. This competition can be
described in three mathematical ways, each of which has
advantages and disadvantages (Figure 5.49). None of the
methods is rigorously applicable to initiation of diapirs, to

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 5.4 Passive Diapirism

Figure 5.46. Hook A salt sheet forms when R/ _ A_  1. The approach was applied
a halokinetic sequences to both upbuilding and downbuilding diapirs. These ideas
Extension and fracturing form on the flanks
of thin roof of a salt diapir being were expanded by McGuinness and Hossack (1993), Jackson
Future failure surface
and halokinetic
repeatedly buried et al. (1994), and Koyi (1998), and especially by Talbot (1995),
sequence boundary by a thin sedimentary who introduced the term molding ratio for R/ _ A_ (Figure 5.50).
Diapir roof, which is then
inflation diapirically breached Although these studies were all merely two-dimensional ana-
Hook 1 _ A_ ratio have remained the
and shouldered aside lyses, the implications of the R/
to form drape folds. preeminent explanation for the cross-sectional shapes of pas-
Debris flows mark
b Onlap and overlap Debris flow from failed the base of each sive diapirs for the past three decades.
roof and diapir halokinetic sequence. Despite this preeminence, the R/ _ A_ concept is fatally flawed
Flexural slip below each as an explanation for cross-sectional shape of passive diapirs. It
Hook 2 unconformity increases
Diapir the original erosional has long been known that R/ _ A_ = 1 for all passive diapirs,
Hook 1 angle of truncation and regardless of cross-sectional shape (Jackson et al. 1988).
creates a salt cusp. After Thus, workers writing about molding ratio must have had
Giles and Rowan (2012).
c Overlap strata some other concept in mind, at odds with the original defin-
_
_ A.
ition of R/
Future failure surface We infer that this other concept was volumetric flux, q
Diapir
inflation
Rotated beds
(Figure 5.49). This is the rate of volume flow across a unit
Cusp Hook 2 area at the top of a diapir. It has units of meters per second (the
same units as R). _ Volumetric flux for a rising diapir can be
Hook 1
thought of as the average vertical velocity of salt through
the top of the diapir, or as the hypothetical rise rate of the
d Debris flow from failed
diapir if it maintained vertical sides in defiance of gravity.
roof and diapir As with R/ _ net volumetric flux would account for salt loss
_ A,
Hook 3
due to erosion or dissolution. The advantage of volumetric
flux is that q/A_ obeys all the rules originally assigned to R/ _
_ A.
Diapir Hook 2 That is, a diapir narrows upward if q/A_ < 1, has vertical sides if
q/A_ = 1, and widens upward if q/A_ > 1. A salt sheet forms
Hook 1 when q/A_  1. We therefore propose that molding ratio be
redefined as q/A_ and that R/ _ A_ be restricted to discussions of
e Failure scarp
evolving topography.
A third way of measuring diapiric rise rate is by volumetric
Diapir Hook 3 rate of salt supply (Weijermars et al. 2015). This is the volume
inflation of salt entering the base of the diapir per unit time, Q. The
Hook 2 advantage of using Q is that it varies systematically through
time as a function of regional parameters such as changes in
Hook 1
basin topography, salt thickness, or gravitational or
displacement loading on the source layer. Despite their simpli-
city, analytical models can simulate in three dimensions the
diapirs buried by a thin roof or minibasin, or to laterally growth of walls having rectangular planforms and stocks
squeezed or stretched diapirs. having circular planforms. The effects of salt spreading over
The oldest, best known, and most misused measure is the a dipping seafloor were explored in the more sophisticated
ratio of rise rate to aggradation rate, R/ _ Rise rate (R)
_ A. _ was analytical models of Weijermars et al. (2015). However, the
defined by Seni and Jackson (1983a) as the change in relief (R) shape of a diapir can be calculated only if Q/A_ is known for the
of a diapir over time, although the concept had been implicit entire history of the diapir. These models resulted in diapirs
since Barton (1933) introduced the concept of downbuilding. typically having curved sides in vertical section rather than the
If the base of salt is set as a fixed reference level, R_ is the rate at straight sides depicted in R/ _ A_ analyses.
which the top of the diapir moves up (or down) (Figure 5.49). If the molding ratio varies over time, more-complex shapes
As a refinement, R_ was defined as the net rate of diapir rise, result. A common shape is an hourglass diapir (Figure 5.51),
which is the total rise rate minus dissolution and erosion of formed when a basal salt pedestal rises to a slimmer stem
salt. Jackson and Cornelius (1987), Jackson et al. (1988), and surmounted by a bulb forming an overhang. However, hour-
Jackson and Talbot (1991) proposed that the interplay between glass diapirs can also form in active diapirism with megaflaps
sedimentation and upwelling salt controlled the cross-sectional (Section 5.3.2.2). For hourglass diapirs formed by passive rise,
shape of a passive diapir. A diapir narrows upward if R/ _ A_ < 1, initially the thin overburden exerts little weight on the source
has vertical sides if R/_ A_ = 1, and widens upward if R/ _ A_ > 1. layer, so salt rises slowly and is onlapped and partly buried by

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Table 5.1. Types of halokinetic sequences

Feature Hook sequence Wedge sequence

Facies in a single halokinetic sequence Outer-shelf black shale (top)
Middle-lower shoreface
Outer-shelf black shale
Subaqueous debris flow (base)
Internal folding Folding common
J-hook unconformities, salt cusps
Truncation angles <90°
Slip on sequence-bounding unconformity Significant slip
Abundant brittle shear
Relative aggradation rate Very low, during transgression
Termination of halokinetic sequence Terminates directly against diapir
Width of upturn Up to 200 m
Note: Adapted from Giles et al. 2004, Giles and Rowan 2012.
Middle-shelf shale (top)
Tidal or lagoonal sandstone
Upper-shoreface sandstone
Lower-shoreface sandstone/shale
Middle-shelf shale (base)
Folding rare
Truncation angles <15°
Negligible slip
Moderately high, during regression
Terminates against older, folded halokinetic sequences;
diapir averages 250 m from truncation
Up to 800 m

Figure 5.47. Characteristic features of (a) a hook

a b halokinetic sequence, which can be stacked into
Axial trace (c) a tabular composite halokinetic sequence;
Axial trace (b) a wedge halokinetic sequence, which can
be stacked into (d) a tapered composite halokinetic
Wedge sequence. After Giles and Rowan (2012).
Diapir

Hook Diapir

50–200 m
Drape folding in zone 50–200 m wide
Up to 90° angular unconformity
Facies change abruptly near diapir
Results from relatively slow aggradation
Zone of stacked
c monoclinal
axial traces
d monoclinal
300–1,000 m
Drape folding in zone 300–1,000 m wide
Up to 30° angular unconformity
Broad zone of gradational facies changes
Results from relatively fast aggradation
Zone of stacked
axial traces

Hook 4 Wedge 4

Hook 3 Wedge 3
Diapir

Hook 2 Wedge 2
Diapir
Hook 1 Wedge 1
50–200-m width of folding
300–1,000-m width of folding
Subparallel base and top boundaries Convergent base and top boundaries
Narrow zone of thinning and upturn near diapir Broad zone of thinning and upturn near diapir
Axial traces are near diapir and offset in Axial trace is continuous and climbs away
zone parallel to diapir margin from diapir
Relatively slow aggradation Relatively fast aggradation

encroaching strata (Figure 5.51(a)). As surrounding sediments
thicken, their extra weight on the source layer causes the diapir
to rise faster, so its contact steepens to vertical (Figure 5.51(c))
and then widens upward (Figure 5.51(d)). During this vigor-
ous stage, gentle upturning of surrounding strata commonly
results in angular unconformities centered on the diapir
(Figure 5.27). The extra weight of the thickening overburden
increases the driving force of diapirism, but depletion of the
source layer offsets this increase. As the source layer thins,
boundary drag within it increases exponentially. Consequently,
the thinning source layer starves the diapir ever more effect-
ively. The diapir rises more sluggishly, and its bulb abruptly
narrows upward, allowing the crest of the diapir to be buried
when passive growth ends (Figure 5.51(e)).

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 5.5 Evolution of Diapirs

During passive rise other changes occur. Sediments onlap

a and encroach across the future salt pedestal, and depocenters
N
of each unit migrate inward, pushing salt toward the diapir
axis. Strata originally onlapping the pedestal (Figure 5.51(a))
rotate as the underlying salt flows toward the diapir axis. After
salt has been entirely expelled locally, a salt weld forms; ori-
Diapir
conta
ct ginal onlaps rotate to form apparent downlaps (Figure 5.51(d)).
The cutoffs of these apparent downlaps become younger in the
Diapir direction in which the expelled salt flowed (toward the diapir).
center Welding cuts off supply of salt from the outer part of the
Road source layer. From initial welding onward, the diapir can only
downbuild by redistributing salt already trapped in its pedestal
(Figure 5.51(b)–(d)).
90
m 5.4.2.3 Salt Wings
The term salt wing was used by Lowrie et al. (1991) to refer
to small protuberances of salt from the flanks of a diapir.
They did not specify how a salt wing forms but appear to have
had intrusion in mind, which was driven by thermal changes
in the salt or density changes in the overburden. Such out-
growths had been previously recognized (for example, Jenyon
b 1986a, figure 7.7) and attributed to lateral injection of salt.
Where overlying strata onlap the salt wing, this geometry
N

Diapir
center suggests that the wings formed by periodic brief extrusion
of salt on the seafloor rather than by intrusion, as in the
Dip slope “Christmas-tree” structures of buried but periodically extrud-
ing mud volcanoes (Figure 5.52). These effects of pulsed
t changes in aggradation rate in forming repeated salt flanges
tac or wings around passive diapirs are seen in physical and
on
rc mathematical models using all three approaches described
pi
ia in the previous section.
D
However, other types of salt wings appear to have formed
by lateral intrusion of salt during diapir shortening and liftoff
folding, especially in the Zechstein basin (Hudec 2004). During
SB the Late Cretaceous regional shortening, Upper Permian salt
intruded laterally along thin Triassic Röt evaporite layers,
which acted as weak surfaces that were “unzipped” and wedged
19 apart by intruding salt (Section 11.2.1.4).
0
up -m-
tu wi
rn de
SB 5.5 Evolution of Diapirs
Salt can rise by reactive, active, or passive diapirism. A diapir
may continue growing in one of these modes for its entire
history. However, any growth mode can switch to any other
mode, which yields a composite growth history. Evidence of
changing growth modes is preserved in sediments surround-
SB ing the diapir, as first recognized by Ferdinand Trusheim
Road SB
(Box 5.2). Examples of changing modes of growth in
Figure 5.53 are arranged according to the initial mode of
growth. Four main agents described in the following four
sections can change the growth mode.
Figure 5.48. Hook halokinetic sequences along the southern margin of
Herang diapir (Zagros fold belt, Iran; SB is sequence boundary. (a) Overview of 5.5.1 Changes in Sedimentation Rate
diapiric margin; the diapir ruin has negative relief. (b) Four hook halokinetic
sequences forming a tabular composite halokinetic sequence. Outside the Diapiric growth is sensitive to changes in aggradation rate.
~200-m-wide zone of upturn (purple line), the halokinetic sequences have a Local and far-field changes in aggradation rate typically
subparallel top and base; axial traces (yellow lines) are offset but stacked parallel
to the diapir contact. Photographs courtesy of Jean Letouzey.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Definition Relatively slow Relatively fast Figure 5.49. The cross-sectional shape of passive
sedimentation sedimentation diapirs depends on the interplay of rising salt
and aggrading sediments. The flow of salt can be
R /A = 1 R /A = 1
measured in three ways: by R_ (the one-dimensional
R A rise rate of the diapir), by q (the volumetric
R R A R A
flux of salt at the diapir crest), and by Q (the
volume of salt added to the base of a diapir per
unit time). L and T are the dimensions of length
and time.

R = LT-1
Horizontal area q / A = 1.2 q / A = 0.5
Volume Height neglecting
q added A
gravity Volume added A

q = L3L-2T-1 = LT-1

High Q Low Q
Q A
A

Q = L3T-1 Horizontal area Volume added

Q = volume added

Time Increasing net diapir rise rate Upward Upward Base-salt flat during
stages narrowing widening relatively rapid diapir rise
6 E F G H
5
D
4
C
3
Slow aggradation
2 B
A
1

0
Salt flare during
relatively rapid diapir rise Steep ramps = relatively slow diapir rise, fast aggradation
Gentle ramps = relatively fast diapir rise, slow aggradation
Figure 5.50. Many workers have used R/ _ A_ to explain cross-sectional shape of passive diapirs. In these explanations, changing the ratios of diapiric rise and
aggradation produces diapirs of widely different shapes (A through H). The problem with this technique is that, between each pair of horizontal time lines, the diapir
and the sediment surface rise by the same amount. Thus, R/ _ A_ = 1 for all diapirs shown. After Talbot (1995).

have opposite effects. Faster far-field aggradation accelerates
overburden thickening and increases pressure of the source
layer, which favors diapirism. In Figure 5.53(c) pressurizing
the source layer accelerates the rise of salt, so the passive diapir
widens upward and extrudes salt. However, doubling the far-
field aggradation rate does not immediately double the salt
pressure in the source layer. The salt pressure is proportional
to the total overburden thickness, not to the rate of thickening.
Thus, doubling the rate of far-field aggradation will have a
rapid effect when the overburden is still thin, but only a
gradual effect if the overburden is already thick.
Faster local aggradation slows the rise of a passive diapir. In
Figure 5.53(a) faster aggradation buried the diapir (aided by
depletion of the source layer). Salt continued to rise as an
active diapir by arching its roof. The local effect of slower
aggradation is to accelerate the rise of a passive diapir, which
widens upward, as long as salt can be imported from the
source layer rapidly enough (Figure 5.53(c)).

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 5.5 Evolution of Diapirs

Figure 5.51. Evolution of an hourglass-shaped

a Outward-
dipping flanks
Onlapping
strata Thin basin depocenter
wall that grew entirely as a passive diapir.
As depocenters migrate inward, adjoining
strata onlap then uplap the salt before being
Salt overstepped by the diapir. q/A_ increases through
most of the diapir’s history because the source
layer is increasingly loaded, and then wanes
near the end as the source layer depletes.
b Primary withdrawal basins touch down

c Withdrawal basins
shift toward diapir
Vertical diapir
flanks
Uplapping
strata Large total thickness

d Source layer welded, no

additional salt available to diapir Inward-shifting depocenters

Pseudo-downlap is rotated onlap

e Buried wide crest

Pedestal

Younger in direction of basal cutoffs

5.5.2 Changes in Salt Supply
If salt flows more slowly into a diapir, its rise is slowed, which
is, in effect, equivalent to increasing the local aggradation rate.
The most common cause of decreased salt supply is exhaustion
of the source layer (Figure 5.53(a)), but salt supply can also be
decreased by far-field erosion.
Conversely, increasing salt supply favors diapirism. The
most common cause of increased salt supply is sediment
aggradation above the source layer, but salt supply can also
be increased by regional tilting, causing salt in the source layer
to flow more rapidly downdip.
5.5.3 Erosion
Here again, the effects of far-field and local erosion are oppos-
ite. Far-field erosion thins the overburden and reduces its load.
This decreases the pressure of the salt source layer, which
retards diapirism fed by the source layer. An outcome of far-
field erosion could thus be burial of the diapir, causing a switch
from passive to active growth (Figure 5.53(a)). However, the
picture can be complicated. For example, if crustal uplift
caused the far-field erosion, increased basinward tilt could
increase salt pressure and promote diapirism downdip from
the exhumed uplift.
Local erosion thins a diapir’s roof and lessens its resistance
to diapirism. An originally passive diapir can be buried by
faster aggradation, then rise actively by arching its roof
(Figure 5.53(b)). Erosion of the arched roof could thin it to
less than threshold thickness, causing the diapir to pierce fully
and then resume passive growth (Figure 5.53(d)). A diapir
initiated as an active injection fold (Figure 5.53(h)) or a dela-
mination intrusion (Figure 5.53(i)) can switch to passive
growth after erosion has stripped off its roof strata.
5.5.4 Regional Extension
Extension is a potent trigger to initiate diapirs. Local structural
thinning causes reactive diapirism, regardless of density, as
long as aggradation is slow enough not to completely fill the
graben above the diapir. A reactive diapir continues rising as
long as salt can be imported fast enough from the source layer.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Seafloor Growth Agent

Mode

a Active
Burial

Incipient Passive
salt wing

b Active Burial then

shortening
Passive
Salt wing
Extrusive

Salt
c passive Faster rise or
slower local
Emergent aggradation
passive

Aggradation
d Passive
Active
and rise rates
balanced
Burial then
Passive faster rise
or erosion
Figure 5.52. Salt wings typically record periodic extrusion of a wedge of
salt that subsequently became buried, as in this example from the northern
Gulf of Mexico. However, in the Zechstein salt basin, most wings represent salt
intrusions along weak layers during contractional delamination. Seismic image
courtesy of TGS.
e Falling
Extension
accelerates
or source layer
depletes
Passive
The supply of salt may not keep pace with the growing diapir
if extension is too fast or if the source layer becomes thin
enough that boundary drag slows salt flow. If salt cannot be Extension stops,
supplied fast enough and extension continues, a reactive diapir f Active
aggradation
continues
starts to fall (Figure 5.53(g)) (Vendeville and Jackson 1992b).
Reactive
An originally passive diapir also falls if extension is too fast
(Figure 5.53(e)). If the roof becomes too thin to resist salt
pressure, a reactive diapir evolves into an active diapir Extension
(Figure 5.53(f)). g Falling accelerates
or source layer
depletes
5.5.5 Regional Shortening Reactive

On a geologic time scale, shortening has immediate effects.

The source layer is further pressurized as the overburden
thickens by folding and thrusting. The source layer itself h Passive
Erosion then
thickens by layer-parallel shortening. Increases in pressure aggradation
and thickness of the source layer promote diapirism. More- Injection
over, buckling of a thick roof above a diapir and squeezing of fold
its flanks force salt to rise as an active diapir. Thus, shortening
can rejuvenate a buried, dormant diapir (Figure 5.53(b)). i Passive
Erosion then
5.6 Diapir-Flank Faults Delamination
aggradation

intrusion
5.6.1 Radial Faults
Figure 5.53. The effects of changing modes of diapiric growth.
Faults radiating outward from diapirs are a fundamental
aspect of salt tectonics and are seen in nearly all diapiric salt
basins. Radial faults abut the diapir contact or curve inward

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Box 5.2 – Ferdinand Trusheim – The Father of Modern Salt Tectonics
Ferdinand Trusheim (Figure 5.54) was born on April 24, 1906, in
Frankfurt am Main and died on June 28, 1997, in Hannover. He
was a pioneer of German petroleum geology and can be
regarded as the founder of modern salt tectonics. Trusheim
began studying geology at Frankfurt, then received a doctorate
from the University of Würzburg for research on the Mittenwald
Karwendel trough. After working at Senckenberg am Meer
research institute, he returned to the University of Würzburg as
an assistant in the Mineralogical-Geological Institute, then
became an associate professor in geology and paleontology
there in 1942. In 1943 Trusheim became a military geologist in
various countries occupied by the Third Reich before being
captured and imprisoned by the Soviet army until 1950. He then
shifted his career to petroleum geology, joining Brigitta (a fore- in this unit are isopachous or thicken slightly toward the salt in
runner of BEB Erdgas und Erdöl). He became their head of
exploration in Hannover in 1957, the year he published his
seminal study of halokinesis.
In these papers, Trusheim (1957, 1960) laid the tectonostrati-
graphic foundation to analyze growth of salt pillows and diapirs.
His landmark papers show how lateral thickness variations in
flanking strata record salt movement through time. Using geo-
physical data from more than 200 Zechstein salt walls and stocks
in northern Germany, Trusheim coined the term peripheral sink
for synkinematic depocenters flanking diapirs; such depocenters
are also known as withdrawal basins. The geometry of these
sinks suggested a three-stage history: the pillow stage, the diapir has remained the basis for all modern analyses of salt tectonics.
stage, and the postdiapir stage (Figure 5.55). Trusheim‘s
sequence begins with a prekinematic, isopachous unit deposited
on the Zechstein Salt. During the pillow stage, synkinematic
sedimentation begins in a primary peripheral sink in which
Figure 5.54. Ferdinand Trusheim. Photo courtesy of Senckenberg Forschung,
Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
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5.6 Diapir-Flank Faults
strata thin by erosion and deposition toward a salt pillow, which
forms a topographic high. This unit is overlain during the diapir
stage by a secondary peripheral sink in which strata thicken
toward a salt diapir (the former salt pillow) except near the salt
contact. This thickening records subsidence due to inward flow
of underlying salt, which evacuates the outer parts of the
former salt pillow. Subsidence deforms the primary peripheral
sink from a convex-downward base and a flat top into a flat
base and a convex-upward top. This inversion forms what
Trusheim called a turtle-shape structure (nowadays called a
turtle structure or turtle-structure anticline) (Figure 5.56).
The secondary peripheral sink is in turn overlain during the
postdiapir stage by a tertiary peripheral sink. The outer strata
response to inward salt flow in the source layer (as in a second-
ary peripheral sink). However, the innermost strata thin across
the crest of the diapir.
Trusheim’s use of the geometry of flanking sediments, rather
than the salt itself, to infer the history of salt flow was a seminal
innovation. His approach is now used by virtually everyone
interpreting the growth history of salt diapirs. But his idea took
another 23 years to disseminate beyond the Zechstein salt basin
(Seni and Jackson 1983a; Lobao and Pilger 1985). Since then,
additional knowledge and insights have suggested modifica-
tions to Trusheim‘s ideas (Vendeville 2002). However, his work
End Muschelkalk a
b Lower Cretaceous (Dogger)
c End Lower Cretaceous
d End Cenozoic
Salt weld
Tertiary peripheral sink Prekinematic unit
Secondary peripheral sink Salt
Primary peripheral sink Presalt
Figure 5.55. Trusheim‘s (1957, 1960) concept of evolving peripheral sinks
during the growth of a salt pillow and diapir, based on examples from North
Germany. His original restoration has been mirrored about the center of the
line to give equal emphasis to the growth of diapirs and the intervening
turtle-structure anticline.
105
 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls
Box 5.2 – (cont.)
0 Figure 5.56. Seismic example of a
1 halokinesis. Northern Gulf of Mexico seismic
2
3 Axial trace of
turtle structure
4
5
Depth (km)
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
V.E. × 2
to intersect it tangentially (Figure 5.57). The salt contact is
cuspate where intersected by tangential faults (Van Beukel
et al. 2000). Radial faults form in at least four ways.
First, some radial faults may have originated as crestal
radial faults in a domed roof that has subsequently been
pierced. An arched roof is typically somewhat wider than the
underlying diapir, so the outermost parts of the crestal fault
system may be preserved in a salt-flank position even if most of
the roof is destroyed during breakthrough. If so, these remnant
faults would have only small displacements and should not
extend far from the salt face.
Second, some radial faults may be caused by hoop (circum-
ferential) strain around an expanding diapir (Figure 5.58(b)).
This expansion may occur as a flap rotates during active dia-
pirism, or it may simply result from the outward force of salt
pushing on its country rocks (Nikolinakou et al. 2014). Next to
a radially expanding diapir, country rock typically undergoes
radial compaction, which diminishes outward; a compres-
sional rim syncline might also form (Stewart 2006). While
country rock is radially shortening, it stretches parallel to the
expanding diapir contact. This hoop extension is proportional
to the strike curvature of the salt contact (Stewart 2006), which
is why radial faults cluster at the end of elliptical diapirs. Faults
formed by this process should have largest displacement next
to the diapir and should become smaller outward.
The limit of hoop extension around a stock can be gauged
by the limit of polygonal faults created by compaction of
the overburden. Polygonal faults are confined to a mud-rich
interval, in which dewatering causes sediments to shrink verti-
cally and horizontally. The faults overlie and flank diapirs.
These polygonal fault patterns record an isotropic far-field
stress. Within about 2 km (or one to two diapir radii) of
a diapir contact, the polygonal pattern changes to a radial
pattern centered on the diapir, or a parallel array connecting
two adjoining stocks (Davison et al. 2000a; Stewart 2006;
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turtle-structure anticline produced by
data courtesy of TGS.
Salt
0 10 km
Carruthers et al. 2013) (Figure 5.59). These fault patterns result
from stress perturbation induced by diapiric doming. The
inward transition from polygonal to aligned faults records
the outer limit of the former stress field around an actively
rising stock at any one time (Carruthers et al. 2013).
Third, contracting diapirs may develop radial thrust faults,
like the iris leaves of a camera when the f-stop is changed. For
example, Upheaval Dome in Utah, which some interpret as a
pinched-off diapir and some others as an impact crater, is
ringed by outer normal faults and lies at the hub of inner
converging thrusts (Box 5.3) (Figure 5.60).
Finally, preexisting salt structures are mechanically weak,
so they are the first to deform in regional extension or
shortening. Faults thus initiate at diapirs and propagate out-
ward, often connecting via relays with faults propagating out
from nearby diapirs (Sections 11.2.1.3 and 12.5). Faults propa-
gating out from isolated diapirs tend to form at high angles to
regional stress, but this tendency often gives way to a stronger
preference to follow the trend of buried salt ridges. As with
faults formed by circumferential strain, normal or reverse
faults formed as a result of regional deformation of preexisting
diapirs have their largest displacements adjacent to salt.
5.6.2 Ring Faults
Circumferentially trending ring faults are not common on salt
flanks. Those few that exist form by inward collapse around
the constricting stem of a diapir (Branney 1995; Malthe-
Sørenssen et al. 1999; Stewart 2006) (Figure 5.58(c)). Still other
concentric normal faults lie many kilometers distant from a
diapir contact on the outer edges of large withdrawal basins
(Maione 2001). These distant faults form mainly by bending
into the withdrawal basin rather than by diapiric constriction.
Localized on this hinge, the fault swarm dies out both inward
and outward from the diapir.
 5.7 Diapir Pinch-Off

a Shallow structural level through roof a Coordinate

Axial

system
Radial

Hoop

Crestal
faults undiffer-
entiated
b
Radial
fault

ta
Tip of

s tr a
radial
fault

ed
om
fd

o
in
M arg Thrust
or
pin line

b Deep structural level through flanks

Radial fault

Rim syncline or
compactional halo

c
Tangential
Salt fault
Central
graben Radial
ta

thrust
s tr a
ed
om

Central
horst
fd

o
in
rg
Ma
Figure 5.57. Radial faults on a diapir flank commonly have a different
pattern and origin from radial faults in an arched diapir roof. (a) Shallow radial
faults are caused by hoop extension of the domed roof. (b) The curvature
of deep tangential faults indicates a changing balance between radial and
hoop stresses.
Area of diapir expansion Strain ellipse
or contraction
5.7 Diapir Pinch-Off Figure 5.58. Schematic maps showing types of radial faults and ring faults
There is strong evidence that many salt diapirs are pinched around expanding and contracting diapiric stocks. (a) Coordinate system for
axial, radial, and hoop directions centered on a diapir. (b) Faulting induced by
off from their source layers (Figure 5.61, Section 11.2.1.3). lateral expansion of a stock. (c) Faulting induced by lateral contraction of
A diapir can pinch off in two main ways, depending on a stock. Inspired by Stewart (2007).
whether the stem is tilted or vertical.
First, a diapir can be pinched off by halokinesis if its stem strata subside into the stem and pedestal of the diapir, they
tilts strongly (Figure 5.62). Strata in the hanging wall above the fold into an expulsion rollover dipping toward the diapir. Salt
inclined stem subside vertically under gravity. As hanging-wall expulsion creates space for more sediment in the hanging wall,

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls
a displaced chiefly to the diapir’s crestal bulb, which expands
N upward and over the footwall of the diapir, which is little
North Pierce
South Pierce
0 2 km
b bulk constriction: a unit sphere transforms into a prolate
N ellipsoid, like a vertical cigar. In the outer rim of deformation,
Fram
0 2 km
Figure 5.59. Radial faulting above or around stocks is a response either
to arching in the diapir’s roof or to hoop extension caused by outward
pressure of diapiric salt against flanking sediments. (a) Radial faults above
North Pierce diapir and radial faults next to South Pierce diapir; dip map at
1,500-m-depth in East Central graben, North Sea; seismic data courtesy of Shell
UK and Dan Carruthers. (b) Radial faults above Fram diapir, grading outward
into polygonal faults; two-way-time map at 1,600 ms in West Central graben,
North Sea; seismic data courtesy of Shell UK and Dan Carruthers.
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producing an isopach thick above the shrinking stem. Salt is
affected by salt expulsion. As salt is expelled in this way, the
sides of the inclined stem converge and can eventually weld,
resulting in a pinched-off diapir.
The most robust way to pinch off a vertical diapir stem is
by shortening (Figure 5.63). During shortening, opposing
flanks of the diapir move toward each other until they touch,
pinching off the stem. In cross section, this closure seems
straightforward. However, pinch-off requires a major change
in the shape of the diapir and adjoining country rocks in plan
view. The overburden along strike from the diapir must
shorten as much as the diapir does, so the strength of these
country rocks must be overcome in order for the diapir to
pinch off. Thus, one test for contractional pinch-off of a diapir
is to look for contractional structures in the nearby wall rocks
(Section 11.2.1.3). Salt walls appear to be much easier to pinch
off than circular stocks, because the long central section of the
wall can pinch off without deforming the wall rocks, leaving
only the high-curvature ends of the walls to deform. Several
physical models and natural examples show walls that pinch
off in the middle, leaving pods of salt at the ends of the wall
(Figure 5.63).
If a stock were to pinch off, deformation in the encasing
country rock would be complex and increase inward to the
shrinking stem. During pinch-off, the country rock undergoes
concentric extensional faults form where strata converge on
the closing stock. Some convergence could be by lateral com-
paction and vertical thickening, but the convergence is mostly
by radial thrusting. Like a camera iris, thrust plates override
each other as they converge, so that thrust heaves increase
inward to the diapir. A rare exposed example of inward-
converging thrust plates is Upheaval Dome in the Paradox
salt basin (Box 5.3).
Can a vertical stem of a diapir pinch off during halokinesis?
For this to occur, the static pressure generated by sediments
pushing inward on a steep salt contact would have to exceed
the pressure of salt pushing out, and the pressure difference
would have to be enough to overcome the strength of the wall
rocks so that they would fail and move inward. This scenario is
unlikely, for three reasons (Heidari et al. 2016; Figure 5.64).
First, the pressure produced by the weight of the overlying
units is likely to be greater in the salt than in the wall rocks.
Salt behaves like a viscous fluid, so stresses within it must be
isotropic. Thus, the horizontal stress pushing out on a vertical
salt contact must be equal to the vertical stress produced by the
weight of the overlying salt, which is ρsalt gz in an emergent
diapir. In the wall rocks, however, only a fraction of the
vertical stress is transferred to horizontal stress. This fraction,
K, has a value of 0.7 to 0.9 for most conditions in sedimentary
basins. The horizontal stress of wall rocks pushing against a
avg
vertical salt contact is thus Kρsed gz. For the inward pressure of
 5.7 Diapir Pinch-Off

109.933°W 109.925°W Figure 5.60. The constricted core of Upheaval

Dome (Utah) showing a radial thrust system in
which throw increases toward a highly deformed
center dominated by sandstone dikes injected
from below. After Jackson et al. (1998), who interpreted
38.440°N

this as the stem of a pinched-off stock.

N
38.435°N

Center 38.437°N, 109.929°W

Upper Chinle Fm. Upper Moenkopi Fm.
Lower Chinle Fm. Middle Moenkopi Fm. Contact
Fault 0 100 m
Moss Back Member Lower Moenkopi Fm.
of Chinle Fm. Turret Rock
White Rim Sandstone dikes

1 Seabed Figure 5.61. A pinched-off salt diapir overlain

by a salt canopy. The salt pedestal below the
2 pinched-off stem passes laterally into a primary
3 salt weld. Gulf of Mexico seismic data courtesy of CGG.
4
5 Top
Allochthonous salt
Depth (km)

6 Base
7
8
9
10
11
Salt
12 pedestal
13 Base autochthonous salt
14
V.E. × 1 0 5 km

wall rocks to exceed the outward pressure of salt, given a salt
density of 2,200 kg/m3, the average density of sediments above
the pinch-off must exceed 2,450 kg/m3. This is above the upper
limit for siliciclastic rocks in sedimentary basins. Thus, salt
stress typically exceeds horizontal sediment stress, so, if any-
thing, vertical diapirs have a tendency to expand outward until
checked by elastic resistance in the country rock.
Second, salt pressure in a vertical diapir is further elevated
by upward transmission of salt overpressures generated by
loading the source layer. If the average density of sediments
loading the source layer exceeds the salt density, then the
source layer becomes overpressured with respect to salt. This
overpressure is transmitted into any diapirs connected to the
source layer, adding to the salt pressure imposed by the vertical

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Figure 5.62. An inclined stock can pinch off

a b as its hanging-wall overburden settles by gravity
and expels salt into an expanding bulb. Salt
Bulb displacement accommodates an isopachous thick
Bulb and an expulsion anticline in the hanging wall.
Stem

Pedestal

cKeystone graben d Expanded

bulb
Expanded

Keystone graben
bulb

Thick
Pinched-off
Ex stem
p
an ulsio
ticl
ine n
Sidewall fault
Expanding weld

Hinterland Foreland pinch off, it is not enough for horizontal sediment stress to
Strongly shortened Weakly shortened overcome the strength of the wall rocks; it must also overcome
Brick the outward pressure of the salt diapir.

Depth Section Brick 5.8 End of Diapir Growth

line
As discussed in Section 3.8, salt flow is driven by differential
Narrowest loading and resisted by salt supply and roof weight and
in center
strength. Diapirs initiate when driving forces exceed resisting
forces, and stop growing when the reverse occurs. For clarity,
what we mean here by “end of diapir growth” is that the
system achieves static equilibrium, so that salt is no longer
Regional shortening

Ellipse flowing. It is possible for diapirs not to grow taller even though
salt continues to rise, as, for example, when the top of the
Ellipse
diapir is vigorously eroded or dissolved.
Depth Section
line Most diapiric salt basins continue to evolve until the source
layer is largely evacuated, so it’s likely that depletion of salt is
Not welded the most common reason why diapirs stagnate. The ability of
at tips salt to flow out of a source layer into a diapir is limited by
viscous shear stress (boundary drag) near the top and bottom
Hourglass contacts of the salt layer. For a salt layer of given thickness, this
Bulbous end boundary shear zone is wide if the salt flow is Newtonian
Depth Section viscous (having dynamic viscosity independent of strain
Hourglass rate). The boundary shear zone is narrower and more intensely
Welded line
in center strained if the flow is power-law viscous, where viscosity
0 2 cm decreases by shear thinning as the rate of shear increases
toward the boundary. The resistance supplied by viscous shear
Figure 5.63. How a diapiric wall pinches off during regional shortening forces is less important for thick salt layers, where only a small
depends on its planform shape. A brick-shaped wall shortens more in the center percentage of salt thickness is intensely sheared along the
than at the ends, which are braced by enclosing sediments. An elliptical wall
is the most difficult to pinch off. An hourglass-shaped wall is most easily welded boundary layers. However, for thin salt layers, viscous resist-
in its center. Left column shows vertical sections through the center of each ance can immobilize the salt. Assuming Newtonian behavior,
wall; map on the right is a horizontal section. Physical model by Tim Dooley. the volumetric flux of laminar flow is proportional to the third
power of the layer thickness (Section 3.8.4.2). Thus, halving the
load of the salt in the diapir. The magnitude of the over- layer thickness retards flow by a factor of 8. For power-law
pressure decreases linearly upward. flow, drag resistance is smaller – although certainly present –
Third, the strength of the wall rocks resists any change in because of shear thinning. Once salt expulsion has reduced the
shape that would accompany pinch-off. Thus, for a diapir to thickness of a layer below a threshold thickness of, say, a few

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 5.8 End of Diapir Growth

Figure 5.64. The balance of static pressures

Sediment surface acting on the vertical sides of a salt wall precludes
the possibility that a vertical diapir can pinch off
z merely by static loading. Outward pressure from
Vertical
z Salt the diapir exceeds inward pressure from the
pressure Vertical country rock. After Heidari et al. (2016).
stress = stress =
ρavg gz due to
sed vertical ρsalt gz
load = Overburden
kρavg
sed
gz ρsalt gz load generates
source-layer
Horizontal stress overpressure if
is a fraction Raised salt pressure ρavg > ρsalt
of vertical stress in diapir due to sed
overpressured
source layer

Box 5.3 – The Upheaval Dome Controversy

Upheaval Dome is located in Canyonlands National Park, south-
eastern Utah. Spectacular canyon relief and superb exposures
make Upheaval Dome a popular attraction for tourists and geolo-
gists alike (Figure 5.65). Its present exposed diameter is about 5
km. The principal structures in Upheaval Dome are three circular
folds, which are concentric about the core of the dome: an
extensional outer rim monocline, an intermediate rim syncline,
and a constrictional central uplift.
Upheaval Dome is one of the most controversial geologic
structures in North America. Hypotheses for its origin include
subsurface salt diapirism, salt dissolution, cryptovolcanic explo-
sion, meteoritic impact, and pinch-off of a salt diapir. A robust
genetic case can be made only for meteoritic impact and salt
diapir pinch-off. Table 5.2 summarizes the evidence for both
hypotheses (see Jackson et al. 2001 for a detailed assessment
of the evidence). Many features, present or absent, support both
origins, and both the pinch-off and impact hypotheses have their
flaws, which has helped to keep the controversy alive.
Impact crater hypothesis
Almost all publications on Upheaval Dome agree that any resem-
blance of the present topography to an impact crater is merely
fortuitous. Any crater was removed by Tertiary uplift and exhum-
ation of the Colorado Plateau. However, there is much disagree-
ment as to the timing of impact and the size of the original
crater. The impact is variously estimated over a time range from
as early as Jurassic to as late as the last few million years. The
diameter of the modified crater is inferred to be as small as 5 km
to as large as 9 km. Estimates of peak confining pressures range
from <1 GPa to >10 GPa.
Various features at Upheaval Dome that were proposed as
evidence of impact have since been discounted. Kriens et al.
(1997) described a few localized fan-shaped arrays of fractures,
which they called “shatter surfaces,” but they do not resemble
true shatter cones produced by shock (Kenkmann 2003). Kriens
et al. (1999) and Kenkmann and Scherler (2002) inferred planar
microstructures in quartz in the White Rim Sandstone, which

1 km Figure 5.65. This oblique view of Upheaval

Dome (Utah) shows the trace of its rim
Rim syncline surrounding its constricted core
sync N
line (white and dark-brown strata). Satellite image
from Google Earth.

1 km
© 2015 Google; Image Landsat

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls

Box 5.3 – (cont.)

Table 5.2. Evidence for pinch-off and impact hypotheses for Upheaval Dome

Observation Pinch-off favored Impact favored

Incompatible Compatible Compatible Incompatible

with impact with pinch-off with impact with pinch-off
POSITIVE EVIDENCE
Circularity X X
Central uplift X X
Clastic dikes X X
Crushed quartz grains X X
Inner constrictional zone X X
Outer extensional zone X X
Fracturing X X
Radial flaps (“dog tongues”) X X
Presence of underlying salt X X
Magnetic anomaly off-center X X
Contiguous anticline X X
Nearby salt structures X X
Rim syncline X X
Inward increase of deformation X X
Asymmetry of tectonic transport X X
Rim monocline X X
Growth folds X X
Growth faults X X
Shifting rim synclines X X
Truncations and channeling X X
Onlap X X
Multiple fracturing and cementation X X
Steep zones X X
Outward-verging extension X X
Volume imbalance X X
Gravity high X X
Pressures much higher than lithostatic X X
Planar deformation features X X
No seismic evidence of deep root X X
Difference from nearby salt structures X X
Statistical probability of impact X X
NEGATIVE EVIDENCE
Lack of salt at the surface X X
Lack of nearby piercement diapirs X X
Lack of meteoritic material X X
Lack of melt and pseudotachylite X X

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 5.8 End of Diapir Growth

Box 5.3 – (cont.)

Table 5.2. (cont.)

Observation Pinch-off favored Impact favored

Incompatible Compatible Compatible Incompatible

Lack of widespread in situ breccia
Lack of ejecta
Lack of shock-metamorphic minerals
Lack of siderophile-element anomalies
Lack of outer fault terracing
Lack of overturned peripheral flap
Lack of shatter cones
Lack of diaplectic glass
with impact with pinch-off with impact with pinch-off
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X
X X

forms clastic dikes in the central uplift. However, these micro-
structures are actually thin deformation bands (Kenkmann 2003),
which are common tectonic features on the Colorado Plateau.
Kriens et al. (1997, 1999) interpreted cobbles of vesicular quartz
in the rim syncline as formerly molten impactite ejecta. However,
a study of the same samples by Koeberl et al. (1999) concludes
that these were merely hydrothermal quartz nodules unrelated
to impact. Koeberl et al. (1999) also refuted an origin by impact
for the clastic dikes, originally thought to be fluidized by transi-
ent shock. An additional problem for the impact hypothesis is
the paucity of allochthonous breccia or in-place breccia, which
should be widespread at the structural level exposed today.
Although they have been exhaustively examined for evidence
of impact, most of the quartz grains in the quartz-rich sandstones
at Upheaval Dome do not have shock features (Buchner and
Kenkmann 2008). In their study of 120 thin sections of Kayenta
sandstones on the eastern flank of the central uplift, these authors
documented only three quartz grains containing shock-induced
planar deformation features. The proportion of quartz grains
showing shocked features is so minuscule that they are likely to
have been weathered from an impact crater in a distant source
area, and even at a distant time, before being transported by
Jurassic rivers to the area of Upheaval Dome. This possibility could
be tested by examining Kayenta sandstones well away from the
dome for similarly minute traces of planar deformation features.
Seismic reflection data should weigh heavily as evidence of
the origin of Upheaval Dome. Interpreting a seismic line across
part of the rim syncline and the outer ring monocline, Kanbur et al.
(2000) detected flat reflectors above the Paradox Salt and dis-
missed any possibility of a pinched-off salt pedestal. This may well
be so. However, greatly superior 3D imaging of pinched-off salt in
the Gulf of Mexico shows that the base of a welded diapiric stem
need not have a pedestal large enough to be imaged. This would
be especially true for a single 2D seismic line across rugged
topography and only covering a part of Upheaval Dome.
Diapir pinch-off hypothesis
The strongest argument for diapirism is the wide range of
synsedimentary structures spatially restricted to this circular
structure (Table 5.2). They include stratigraphic thickness
changes, angular truncations, onlap surfaces, channeling, growth
faults, growth folds, shale diapirs, and shifting rim synclines. This
stratigraphic evidence indicates protracted growth of Upheaval
Dome over at least 20 Myr, which is incompatible with geologic-
ally instantaneous deformation during hypervelocity impact.
The hypothesis for pinch-off envisages an emergent passive
stock less than 1 km in diameter that was surrounded by a gentle
rim syncline in Pennsylvanian time. The inferred diapir remained
near the surface throughout the Permian, Triassic, and Early
Jurassic as sediments accumulated around it. Increasing sedi-
mentary load on the Paradox source layer below increased the
flux of salt up the diapir. Abortive salt glaciers are inferred to
have spread from a passive salt stock during the Late Triassic and
Early Jurassic, based on speculative evidence of small salt welds
around the central uplift. The diapir widened over time, as
recorded by concentric steep zones marking the limits of the
diapir, which migrated outward over time.
The central uplift is inferred to be the toe of a convergent
gravity spreading system (as in the impact hypothesis). Radial
growth folds in the lower Wingate sandstones indicate that the
walls of the diapir began to converge inward during the Early
Jurassic. The country rocks collapsed inward as the dome periph-
ery extended radially. This movement produced intense
constrictional strain and structural thickening in the center of
the dome. Sediments in front of the extruding salt steepened to
near vertical. Salt extrusion accompanied pinch-off of the diapir
during the Middle Jurassic. By analogy with emplacement of
allochthonous salt sheets on passive margins, the constriction
of diapiric pinch-off would have forced salt from the shrinking
diapir stem to extrude at the surface. During the Middle Jurassic,
the allochthonous salt spread to the farthest extent. This formed a
pancake-shaped extrusion about 3 km in diameter, whose limits
are recorded in the youngest and widest concentric steep zone.
Conclusion
Given the excellent three-dimensional exposure of Upheaval
Dome, it is remarkable that there is evidence of two such differ-
ent proposed origins. As is often so in a controversy, each faction

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls
Box 5.3 – (cont.)
focuses on evidence favorable to its position and discounts
adverse evidence, typically from a simplistic perspective of pro-
cesses with which it is unfamiliar. The significance of Upheaval
Dome is that it is likely to display one of the world’s best
three-dimensionally exposed roots of either an impact crater or a
tens of meters, the salt flows little, even if a large differential
load is applied. In addition, circulating groundwater can
dissolve the remaining salt to form a complete salt weld
(Section 9.5.2).
The other resisting factor that can terminate diapirism is
the strength and weight of the diapir roof. If the roof is too
thick or strong, then the diapir stops rising even if there is still
salt left in the source layer. The roof typically thickens and
strengthens by aggradation, although, in contractional settings,
thrusting can place a competent roof over the top of a diapir. If
a diapir is trapped in the subsurface by a strong roof, then
anything that disrupts this roof can restart diapir rise, some-
times very rapidly if the salt is overpressured.
Diapirs can also stop rising if driving forces decrease,
although this is less common than increasing resistance forces.
The most common example of this is in reactive diapirism,
where diapir rise is driven by differential loading caused by
extensional thinning of the diapir roof. At each stage in the
reactive process, the diapir rises until equilibrium is reached,
and then it stops. Further extensional thinning is required to
perturb this equilibrium and create additional driving force for
the diapir to continue rising.
5.9 Diapir Fall
Because diapirs by definition rise through younger rocks, it
seems counterintuitive for a diapir crest to subside. However,
there are at least three situations in which a diapir can fall.
First, although extension can cause diapirs to rise reactively
if salt supply is plentiful (Section 5.2.1), extension can also
cause diapirs to fall once the source layer is thin or depleted
(Section 10.2.4.2). Stretching a diapir faster than the source
layer can supply new salt causes a diapir crest to subside – akin
to a drop in water level if the walls of a container are moved
apart (Vendeville and Jackson 1992b; Figure 5.66).
Second, part of a diapir can fall if salt flows from it to
another part of the same diapir. For example, parts of a salt
wall may subside to allow some culminations within the wall to
keep growing (Figure 5.67). Another example is the subsidence
of minibasins into a salt sheet (which is a type of diapir,
Section 7.3), allowing other parts of the salt sheet or canopy
to inflate or extrude.
Finally, salt diapirs can fall by dissolution collapse (Section
5.10). Such structures can be impressive at the surface but are
usually small on the scale of the entire diapir. Furthermore,
large-scale dissolution is usually restricted to the near-surface,
in the zone where a large volume of undersaturated water can
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pinched-off salt diapir. Either way, the complex exposures pro-
vide a stark warning to petroleum geoscientists that impact
craters or pinched-off diapirs are fraught with exploration risks.
Key references: Kriens et al. (1997, 1999), Jackson et al. (1998, 2001),
Kenkmann et al. (2005).
a Widening
b
passive Extension
Extension
diapir Sagging crest
Widening
diapir
Abundant salt supply Restricted salt supply
Figure 5.66. The influence of extension on diapirism depends on the diapir
geometry and salt supply. (a) After a diapir has broken through to the surface to
rise passively, regional extension widens the diapir. The salt can still keep rising
as long as salt supply remains abundant. (b) Once salt supply becomes
restricted, continued extension widens the diapir and leads to diapir fall.
be circulated against a salt face. Dissolution only causes a
diapir crest to subside when dissolved salt is not being replaced
by the rising diapir.
5.10 Dissolution of Salt Diapirs
All evaporites are soluble, so salt structures are easily dissolved
by undersaturated surface water or groundwater. Diapirs near
the surface are particularly prone to salt dissolution. The
following section deals with the effects of dissolution on land.
The next section covers dissolution under water. A third
section describes how dissolution forms cap rock.
5.10.1 Dissolution on Land
Only the broad facts were known about subaerial dissolution
of salt diapirs until work on the geomorphology of Zagros
diapirs by geologists at Charles University (Prague) and their
Iranian colleagues (Bosák et al. 1998; Bruthans et al. 2000,
2006, 2009, 2010) and by Talbot (in a series of papers, synthe-
sized by Talbot 1998).
The geomorphology of salt diapirs is affected by climate
and by the vigor of diapiric rise. An actively rising salt plug
has positive relief, a periclinal stream network, and well-
exposed evaporites. A salt plug that recently became inactive
has only relict exposures of salt, and a substantial gypsum
mantle. A diapir that has long stopped rising degrades to a
salt ruin, which is a flat or slightly sunken area dotted with
rounded hills of exotic blocks and having negligible rock salt
at the surface.
In contact with fresh water or undersaturated brine, rock
salt dissolves to form striking geomorphic features (Figure 5.68).
Surface-lowering rates in salt outcrops are commonly several
 5.10 Dissolution of Salt Diapirs

Rising
Graben above culmination
sinking part of wall of salt wall
Rising
culmination
of salt wall

n
rb urde
Ove flow
lel salt
e - paral Extension
Salt k
Stri
Dip-parallel salt flow Fallen diapir
Regional extension
Figure 5.67. Commonly different parts of a salt wall behave differently during regional extension. Depressions in the wall tend to fall because they are overlain by the
thickest overburden, which drives salt along strike to culminations in the wall. These culminations therefore rise more vigorously. After Vendeville and Jackson (1992b).

a b

Bedding d
c

Figure 5.68. Exokarst and endokarst structures are common in the crest of dissolving salt diapirs in the Zagros (Iran). (a) Centimeter-scale rillenkarren
(solution grooves) separated by sharp ridges and spires in mylonitic salt of Kuh-e-Namak (Bushehr Province). (b) Meter-scale sinkholes revealed by removal of
residual gypsum soil before salt quarrying; Garmsar salt nappe, Great Kavir (Iran). (c) Entrance to a cave into Namakdan diapir, Qeshm Island (Iran). (d) 3N Cave,
Namakdan diapir (Iran). Photographs (a)–(c) by Martin Jackson, (d) courtesy of Jiří Bruthans.

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls
centimeters per year and may reach more than 10 cm/yr.
As near-surface salt dissolves, its sediment mantle is breached
by exokarst and endokarst landforms that are similar to
those in limestones but evolve much more rapidly. Sinkholes
merge to form badlands, which form closed depressions
having sediment-filled bottoms as much as several kilometers
wide. Some sinkholes lead into caves or act as swallow holes for
streams draining underground at the end of blind valleys and
in large depressions. Caves vary widely from small embryonic
cavities to large multilevel systems. The world’s longest salt
cave is the 6,580-m-long 3N Cave in Namakdan diapir. This
cave contains at least 9 km of explored passages created in the
last three to six thousand years by episodic streams after heavy
rainfall on the normally arid Qeshm Island (Iran).
Sinkholes that form beneath diapir roofs are commonly
rimmed by extensional faults. Physical modeling suggests that
this is only part of the kinematic picture and that the most
diagnostic structures are contractional thrusts near the middle
of the collapse (Ge and Jackson 1998). Conical, concentric
rings of inner contraction and outer extension form above a
subsiding salt stock, regardless of the shape of the subsiding
diapir’s crest (Figure 5.69). The zones of extension and con-
traction balance each other. The contraction differentiates
collapsed roofs from those stretched by regional extension.
However, the diagnostic inner contractional zone is likely to
be obscured by colluvium and alluvium. The origin of reverse
a Undeformed rectangular wall bExtensional
Subsided rectangular wall
Extensional
zone
Contractional
zone
Salt wall
c Undeformed semicircular wall dExtensional
Subsided semicircular wall
zone
Extensional
zone
Contractional
zone
Salt wall
e Undeformed triangular wall fExtensional
Subsided triangular wall
Extensional
zone
Contractional
zone
Salt wall
0 5 cm Salt weld
Figure 5.69. As salt diapirs dissolve, their roofs collapse. Cross sections show
(a, c, e) initial geometry and (b, d, f) effects of salt subsidence on the roofs
of diapiric walls of three basic profile shapes in physical models. In each shape,
a central contractional zone is bounded by a balancing extensional zone.
After physical models by Ge and Jackson (1998).
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faults should be carefully evaluated in inverted basins, where
they might have regional causes.
Most diapirs are 95 percent covered by surficial sediments a
few decimeters to several tens of meters thick. Most commonly
these sediments are a weathering residue formed in the unsat-
urated zone. The residue is typically a gypsum–anhydrite mix-
ture, and a wide range of sedimentary, igneous, and
metamorphic rocks. The next most common sediments on
subaerial diapir crests are fluvial. The weathering residue is
reworked to form stratified and sorted fluvial deposits in
valleys, flat surfaces, and sinkholes on diapirs.
5.10.2 Dissolution under Water
The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea contain many depres-
sions attributed to salt dissolution (Ross and Uchupi 1973;
Schoell et al. 1974; Bertoni and Cartwright 2005, 2015). The
superheated “black smokers” venting mineral-laden brine
from the abyssal Red Sea have been attributed to hydrothermal
circulation of seawater leaching metals from new oceanic crust.
Some of these salts and dissolved metals may have been
derived from dissolution of evaporites.
Brine dissolved by salt diapirs mostly dissipates as it
mixes with seawater. However, on reaching a closed topo-
graphic basin, the dense brine settles and forms a long-lived
submarine brine lake if undisturbed by bottom currents.
A prime example of a brine lake is the Orca basin, a mini-
basin on the continental slope of the northern Gulf of
Mexico (Shokes et al. 1977; Trabant and Presley 1978;
Pilcher and Blumstein 2007). A striking seismic reflector
zone marks the top of the dense brine lake and the base of normal
seawater (Figure 5.70).
5.10.3 Cap Rock
Cap rock has several geologic meanings that refer to a layer
that is either more resistant to weathering or less permeable
than the rock it caps. In salt tectonics, though, cap rock has a
specific designation as rock formed at the crest of many diapirs
as halite dissolves and the residue is chemically altered. Cap
rock has been extensively studied because it can contain eco-
nomic minerals, especially sulfur and base-metal sulfides.
Moreover, vugs and fractures in cap rock also provide petrol-
eum reservoirs, as in the epochal Spindletop oil discovery in
1901, which was the first over a diapir, and the world’s most
zone productive at the time (Box 1.3). Most research on cap rocks
has been on U.S. Gulf Coast diapirs, where cap rock is espe-
cially widespread. This section draws heavily from Feely and
Kulp (1957) and Posey and Kyle (1988).
Cap rock forms as diapiric evaporites are altered by warm,
saline, formation fluids from deep-basin sources mixing with
cool, dilute, meteoric waters. As halite dissolves, the crest of
the diapir and all its internal structures are truncated to form
a near-horizontal solution table. Salt dissolves inward from the
top and upper sides of the diapirs. Cap rock is thickest on
the crest of diapirs and thins down the diapir’s shoulders as
 5.10 Dissolution of Salt Diapirs

West East

Orca minibasin
2.5 Rotated Brine Exposed salt
extensional runoff
faults
Brine lake
3.0
Two-way time (s)

Thin roof
Chaotic, slumped interval
3.5
Salt diapir

4.0
Salt diapir
Minibasin
4.5

5.0
0 5 km

Figure 5.70. Where brine leaks from dissolving salt diapirs into a closed depression, the brine ponds, forming salt flats in deserts or brine lakes under water.
The seismic profile shows a brine lake in Orca minibasin, northern Gulf of Mexico. The diapir on the eastern flank of the minibasin has a concave summit where salt
is partly exposed by extensional slumping and dissolution, which supplies brine for the lake. After Pilcher and Blumstein (2007).

meteoric waters grade with depth into saltier compactional and

thermobaric waters. Only salt domes shallower than 2 km have
anhydrite cap rock in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Negative relief is
absent over any Texas dome that either is deeper than 600 m or
has cap rock thicker than 200 m.
Cap rock typically has two main zones: an anhydrite cap
and a calcite cap (Figure 5.71). The microlaminated anhydrite
cap is the residue of halite dissolution. The cap can be thicker
than 300 m. It rests directly on salt or overlies cavities of
dissolved salt in the crest of the diapir. Anhydrite layers
become younger downward because anhydrite forms by
underplating as halite dissolves at the base of the cap rock.
As salt dissolves, the salt diapir can compensate by
continued rise.
Calcite replaces the upper or outer parts of the anhydrite
cap, probably from the top downward. A thin transitional
gypsum zone forms by hydration of anhydrite. Above the
gypsum the calcite cap generally comprises two rock types
(Figure 5.71): an upper variegated limestone and a lower
banded limestone. The upper variegated limestone formed
early and commonly contains siliciclastic and variegated car-
bonate clasts in a massive and fine-grained carbonate matrix.
Only about half of Gulf Coast cap rocks contain the lower
banded calcite or “zebra-textured” zone. The lower banded False calcite cap Gypsum (transitional) cap
zone is lithologically similar to the variegated limestone, except
Marine calcite cap Anhydrite cap
that the calcite phases form subhorizontal bands crosscut by
younger calcite veins and vugs. Limestones termed false calcite Variegated calcite cap Halite dissolution (anhydrite
sand and cavities)
and marine false calcite can form above the variegated and
banded calcite zones (Figure 5.71). False calcite is composed of Banded calcite cap Salt stock
calcite-cemented clasts from wall rocks. Marine calcite forms Figure 5.71. Different stages of alteration produce a zoned cap rock, which is
on topographic bulges above salt diapirs. typical of U.S. Gulf Coast diapirs. After Posey and Kyle (1988).

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 Salt Stocks and Salt Walls
As the alteration front moves downward, the cap rock
reacts in complex ways. In the transitional gypsum zone,
anhydrite is hydrated to gypsum and dissolved in water. The
freed sulfate ions mix with organic compounds and hydrocar-
bons, including biogenic or thermogenic methane, and are
altered by sulfate-reducing bacteria to hydrogen sulfide, cal-
cium carbonate, and water to form the calcite cap. The textural
variety of the calcite cap indicates that preexisting sediments,
topography, and timing of calcite formation affect the oxida-
tion to calcite, which can preserve original anhydrite textures.
As anhydrite dissolves, the calcite–anhydrite interface moves
downward. As anhydrite dissolves, voids open and collapse to
form breccias cemented by younger phases of calcite.
The hydrogen sulfide is ultimately oxidized to native
sulfur by several intermediate reactions. Native sulfur forms
throughout a cap rock but is generally concentrated in the
lower part of the calcite cap. Thickest accumulations of calcite
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cap and native sulfur are commonly on the basinward side of
salt domes. Free sulfur and hydrogen sulfide are formed by
numerous types of anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria, chiefly
Desulfovibrio desulfuricans. Sulfate-reducing bacteria flourish
at depths generally less than 750 m and temperatures below
60 °C, given an energy source. Some twenty-four onshore
domes in the Gulf Coast have produced sulfur commercially
and contain the biggest deposits of native sulfur in the world.
Even more sulfur is recovered from petroleum refining and
from sour natural gas.
Iron sulfides, sphalerite, galena, barite, celestite, and stron-
tianite are common in the calcite and anhydrite caps of Gulf
Coast diapirs; rare acanthite, realgar, and uranium minerals
are also known. This mineralization may be related to that
in salt diapirs in northwest Africa (Rouvier et al. 1985) and
to Mississippi Valley-type and sedimentary exhalative metal
deposits (Kyle and Price 1986).