Salt flow by aggrading and prograding overburdens

The mechanisms responsible for segmentation of salt sheets and their emplacement into higher stratigraphic levels are not separable and act simultaneously. Three sets of centrifuge models with strongly planar anisotropic microlaminate overburdens are used to study the effect of aggradation and progradation on segmentation and emplacement of allochthonous salt sheets. Comparison of model results suggests that progradation loads underlying "salt' differentially, displaces it downdip and segments it. As it segments at the back, the "salt' flows laterally to areas of lower loading by intruding through the thinner overburden units and forming secondary "salt' sheets at the front. On the other hand, aggradation of uniform overburden segments a buoyant sheet into two-dimensional salt walls or stocks, as in the first set of models. -from Author