Salt tectonics at the margins of young oceans

Abstract

The paper is devoted to salt tectonics in marginal oceanic salt-dome basins and is based on a wide synthesis of the literature and the author’s data. For the first time, the general pattern of global distribution of these basins has been illustrated by a map. Their localization and structure, tectonic position and evolution, and peculiar morphokinematic features of salt tectonics are characterized and compared with the attributes of salt tectonics inherent to continental regions. The geodynamic settings of the initial formation of marginal oceanic basins and their present-day arrangement have been refined, as well as the onset of salt tectonics therein, manifested in various styles. It has been shown that the geodynamic type of basin and stages of its geodynamic evolution determine the morphokinematic type of salt tectonics, character of its manifestation, and dislocations in host sedimentary complexes, and, therefore, they are auxiliary indicators of geodynamic regimes. The mechanisms of salt tectonics, its effect on the structure of overlying sedimentary sequences, and localization of hydrocarbon fields are discussed.