Extensional rise and fall of a salt diapir in the Sørvestsnaget Basin, SW Barents Sea

• Published in: Marine and Petroleum Geology
• Main Authors: Perez-Garcia, C., Safronova, P. A., Mienert, J., Berndt, Christian, Andreassen , K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2013
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Sørvestsnaget; Tilting
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/16503/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/16503/2/Perez-Garcia.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2013.05.010

Regional extension which initiates and promotes the rise of salt diapirs can also make diapirs fall once the supply of salt from its source is restricted. New observations on the 3D seismic data from a salt diapir in the Sørvestsnaget Basin suggest that salt moves until the end of the Eocene and is subtle to minor readjustments afterwards, revealing a more complex kinematics that previously described. Observations such as salt horns and sags and an antithetic fault linked to the western flank of the diapir suggest that salt syn-kinematics during Middle-Late Eocene included passive rising of the salt, followed by a fall. The salt horns are remnants of a taller salt diapir that, together with the indentation of the Middle-Late Eocene syn-kinematic sediment overburden above the salt, indicate diapiric fall due to restriction of salt supply by extension. Post-kinematic readjustments did not include diapiric reactivation by tectonic compression as previously thought, but minor salt rise by shortening due to gravity gliding after the tilting of the margin during Plio-Pleistocene glacial sediment loading and differential compaction of surrounding sediments. The salt diapir appears to be presently inactive and salt supply may have been restricted from its source already since Late Eocene.