Geological controls on the present temperature field of the western Sverdrup Basin,Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Analysis of current temperature data in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago results in the recognition of two major thermal regimes. High temperature regions are observed where salt diapirs and salt cored anticlines are present. Low temperature fields are observed along the western and southern basin margins and around Cornwall‐Amund Ringnes islands, where regional Mesozoic aquifers are exposed to surface, connected to basin boundary faults, or regional unconformities. Meteoric and Holocene sub‐glacial water recharge are inferred to be responsible for the low geothermal regime and low formation water salinity. Neither exhumation associated with the Eocene “Eurekan” orogeny nor volcanic intrusion associated with opening of Amerasia Basin in late Jurassic‐early Cretaceous have been interpreted to be a significant influence on the present day temperature field, although thermal indicators show evidence of elevated thermal alteration of organic matter pointing to earlier, but now dissipated, thermal anomalies.     

Subsurface fluid flow in the deep‐water Kwanza Basin,offshore Angola

Integrated analysis of high‐quality three‐dimensional (3D) seismic, seabed geochemistry, and satellite‐based surface slick data from the deep‐water Kwanza Basin documents the widespread occurrence of past and present fluid flow associated with dewatering processes and hydrocarbon migration. Seismic scale fluid flow phenomena are defined by seep‐related seafloor features including pockmarks, mud or asphalt volcanoes, gas hydrate pingoes, as well as shallow subsurface features such as palaeo‐pockmarks, direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs), pipes and bottom‐simulating reflections (BSRs). BSR‐derived shallow geothermal gradients show elevated temperatures attributed to fluid advection along inclined stratigraphic carrier beds around salt structures in addition to elevated shallow thermal anomalies above highly conductive salt bodies. Seabed evidences of migrated thermogenic hydrocarbons and surface slicks are used to differentiate thermogenic hydrocarbon migration from fluid flow processes such as dewatering and biogenic gas migration. The analysis constrains the fluid plumbing system defined by the three‐dimensional distribution of stratigraphic carriers and seal bypass systems through time. Detailed integration and iterative interpretation have confirmed the presence of mature source rock and effective migration pathways with significant implications for petroleum prospectivity in the post‐salt interval. Integration of seismic, seabed geochemistry and satellite data represents a robust method to document and interpret fluid flow phenomena along continental margins, and highlights the importance of integrated fluid flow studies with regard to petroleum exploration, submarine geohazards, marine ecosystems and climate change.     

Post-Jurassic tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Northern Lusitanian Basin (Western Iberian margin)

Seismic reflection and well stratigraphic data are used to investigate the post‐Jurassic evolution of the Northern Lusitanian Basin, offshore west Iberia. Stratigraphic correlations between 11 exploration wells were attained in order to characterize the variations in depositional facies associated with salt tectonics. Latest Triassic–Hettangian salt, which generated multiple salt pillows during the Jurassic rifting, was reactivated after the early Aptian in two main phases. The first phase stretches from the late Turonian to the Maastrichtian. The second relates to Miocene tectonic inversion. The compression of the post‐salt overburden caused the amplification of Jurassic detachment folds, forming barriers to the westward progradation of sediment into distinct salt‐withdrawal sub‐basins. Particularly during the Miocene, thin‐skinned overburden shortening was accommodated by growing salt structures that suffered thrusting and extrusion. This structural style contrasts with that of salt‐scarce areas where a simple westerly tilted, fault‐bounded monocline was generated.     

Factors controlling stratal pattern and facies distribution of fluvio‐lacustrine sedimentation in the Sivas mini‐basins,Oligocene (Turkey)

The Sivas Basin, located in the Central Anatolian Plateau of Turkey, is a foreland basin that records a complex interaction between sedimentation, salt tectonics and regional shortening during the Oligo‐Miocene leading to the formation of numerous mini‐basins. The Oligocene sedimentary infill of the mini‐basins consists of a thick continental succession, the Karayün Formation, comprising a vertical succession of three main sub‐environments: (i) playa‐lake, (ii) fluvial braided, and (iii) saline lacustrine. These sub‐environments are seen as forming a large Distributive Fluvial System (DFS) modified through time as a function of sediment supply and accommodation related to regional changes in climate and tectonic regime. Within neighbouring mini‐basins and despite a similar vertical stratigraphic succession, subtle variations in facies assemblages and thickness are observed in stratigraphic units of equivalent age, thus demonstrating the local control exerted by halokinesis. Stratigraphic and stratal patterns reveal in great detail the complex interaction between salt tectonics and sedimentation including different types of halokinetic structures such as hooks, wedges and halokinetic folds. The regional variations of accommodation/sediment supply led to coeval changes in the architectural patterns recorded in the mini‐basins. The type of accommodation regime produces several changes in the sedimentary record: (i) a regime dominated by regional accommodation limits the impact of halokinesis, which is recorded as very small variations in stratigraphic thickness and facies distribution within and between mini‐basins; (ii) a regime dominated by localized salt‐induced accommodation linked to the subsidence of each individual mini‐basin enhances the facies heterogeneity within the DFS, causing sharp changes in stratigraphic thickness and facies assemblages within and between mini‐basins.     

Burial and exhumation of the western border of the Ukrainian Shield (Podolia): a multi‐disciplinary approach

The Podolia region is located along the western border of the Eastern European Craton, which is also known as Ukrainian Shield. From the Ordovician to the Miocene, this area formed part of an epicontinental basin system. In order to investigate the effects of orogenic cycles occurring along the plate margin, a multi‐disciplinary approach was used in this study. Paleotemperature analysis and low‐temperature thermochronometry were combined with stratigraphic data to obtain a burial model for the Paleozoic succession exposed in the study area. Maximum burial for Silurian and Devonian rocks occurred during the Devonian and Early Carboniferous at depths of 4–5 km, as constrained by vitrinite reflectance and illite content in mixed illite‐smectite layers. Thermochronometric data indicate that exhumation through the 45–120 °C temperature range took place between the Late Triassic and the Early Jurassic, and that no significant burial occurred afterwards (temperatures characterising the stratigraphically lowermost units remaining below ca. 60 °C). These results point to a major exhumation event coeval with the Cimmerian orogenesis, which took place a few hundreds of kilometres away from the study area. On the other hand, no significant effect of the Alpine orogenesis was recorded, although the collisional front was located <100 km from the Podolia region. This work shows how paleothermal and thermochronometric analyses can be successfully integrated with stratigraphic data to reconstruct the burial history, and how the burial history of a basin located on a plate margin can, in some cases, be independent from the distance of the margin from the collisional fronts.     

Testing long-term patterns of basin sedimentation by detrital zircon geochronology, Centralian Superbasin, Australia

Detrital zircon geochronology of Neoproterozoic to Devonian sedimentary rocks from the Georgina and Amadeus basins has been used to track changes in provenance that reflect the development and inversion of the former Australian Superbasin. Through much of the Neoproterozoic, sediments appear to have been predominantly derived from local sources in the Arunta and Musgrave inliers. Close similarities between the detrital age signatures of late Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks in the two basins suggests that they were contiguous at this time. A dominant population of 1.2–1.0 Ga zircon in Early Cambrian sediments of the Amadeus Basin reflects the uplift of the Musgrave Inlier during the Petermann Orogeny between 560 and 520 Ma, which shed a large volume of detritus northwards into the Amadeus Basin. Early Cambrian sedimentary rocks in the Georgina Basin have a much smaller proportion of 1.2–1.0 Ga detritus, possibly due to the formation of sub‐basins along the northern margin of the Amadeus Basin which might have acted as a barrier to sediment transfer. An influx of 0.6–0.5 Ga zircon towards the end of the Cambrian coincides with the transgression of the Larapintine Sea across central Australia, possibly as a result of intracratonic rifting. Detrital zircon age spectra of sedimentary rocks deposited within this epicontinental sea are very similar to those of coeval sedimentary rocks from the Pacific Gondwana margin, implying that sediment was transported into central Australia from the eastern continental margin. The remarkably consistent ‘Pacific Gondwana’ signature of Cambro‐Ordovician sediments in central and eastern Australia reflects a distal source, possibly from east Antarctica or the East African Orogen. The peak of the marine incursion into central Australia in the early to mid Ordovician coincides with granulite‐facies metamorphism at mid‐crustal depths between the Amadeus and Georgina basins (the Larapinta Event). The presence of the epicontinental sea, the relative lack of a local basement zircon component in Cambro‐Ordovician sedimentary rocks and their maturity suggest that metamorphism was not accompanied by mountain building, consistent with an extensional or transtensional setting for this tectonism. Sediments deposited at ～435–405 and ～365 Ma during the Alice Springs Orogeny have detrital age signatures similar to those of Cambro‐Ordovician sedimentary rocks, reflecting uplift and reworking of the older succession into narrow foreland basins adjacent to the orogen.     

Controls on fluvial sedimentary architecture and sediment‐fill state in salt‐walled mini‐basins: Triassic Moenkopi Formation,Salt Anticline Region,SE Utah,USA

The Triassic Moenkopi Formation in the Salt Anticline Region, SE Utah, represents the preserved record of a low‐relief ephemeral fluvial system that accumulated in a series of actively subsiding salt‐walled mini‐basins. Development and evolution of the fluvial system and its resultant preserved architecture was controlled by the following: (1) the inherited state of the basin geometry at the time of commencement of sedimentation; (2) the rate of sediment delivery to the developing basins; (3) the orientation of fluvial pathways relative to the salt walls that bounded the basins; (4) spatially and temporally variable rates and styles of mini‐basin subsidence and associated salt‐wall uplift; and (5) temporal changes in regional climate. Detailed outcrop‐based tectono‐stratigraphic analyses demonstrate how three coevally developing mini‐basins and their intervening salt walls evolved in response to progressive sediment loading of a succession of Pennsylvanian salt (the Paradox Formation) by the younger Moenkopi Formation, deposits of which record a dryland fluvial system in which flow was primarily directed parallel to a series of elongate salt walls. In some mini‐basins, fluvial channel elements are stacked vertically within and along the central basin axes, in response to preferential salt withdrawal and resulting subsidence. In other basins, rim synclines have developed adjacent to bounding salt walls and these served as loci for accumulation of stacked fluvial channel complexes. Neighbouring mini‐basins exhibit different styles of infill at equivalent stratigraphic levels: sand‐poor basins dominated by fine‐grained, sheet‐like sandstone fluvial elements, which are representative of nonchannelised flow processes, apparently developed synchronously with neighbouring sand‐prone basins dominated by major fluvial channel‐belts, demonstrating effective partitioning of sediment route‐ways by surface topography generated by uplifting salt walls. Reworked gypsum clasts present in parts of the stratigraphy demonstrate the subaerial exposure of some salt walls, and their partial erosion and reworking into the fill of adjoining mini‐basins during accumulation of the Moenkopi Formation. Complex spatial changes in preserved stratigraphic thickness of four members in the Moenkopi Formation, both within and between mini‐basins, demonstrates a complex relationship between the location and timing of subsidence and the infill of the generated accommodation by fluvial processes.     

Impact of normal faulting and pre‐rift salt tectonics on the structural style of salt‐influenced rifts: the Late Jurassic Norwegian Central Graben,North Sea

Studies of salt‐influenced rift basins have focused on individual or basin‐scale fault system and/or salt‐related structure. In contrast, the large‐scale rift structure, namely rift segments and rift accommodation zones and the role of pre‐rift tectonics in controlling structural style and syn‐rift basin evolution have received less attention. The Norwegian Central Graben, comprises a complex network of sub‐salt normal faults and pre‐rift salt‐related structures that together influenced the structural style and evolution of the Late Jurassic rift. Beneath the halite‐rich, Permian Zechstein Supergroup, the rift can be divided into two major rift segments, each comprising rift margin and rift axis domains, separated by a rift‐wide accommodation zone – the Steinbit Accommodation Zone. Sub‐salt normal faults in the rift segments are generally larger, in terms of fault throw, length and spacing, than those in the accommodation zone. The pre‐rift structure varies laterally from sheet‐like units, with limited salt tectonics, through domains characterised by isolated salt diapirs, to a network of elongate salt walls with intervening minibasins. Analysis of the interactions between the sub‐salt normal fault network and the pre‐rift salt‐related structures reveals six types of syn‐rift depocentres. Increasing the throw and spacing of sub‐salt normal faults from rift segment to rift accommodation zone generally leads to simpler half‐graben geometries and an increase in the size and thickness of syn‐rift depocentres. In contrast, more complex pre‐rift salt tectonics increases the mechanical heterogeneity of the pre‐rift, leading to increased complexity of structural style. Along the rift margin, syn‐rift depocentres occur as interpods above salt walls and are generally unrelated to the relatively minor sub‐salt normal faults in this structural domain. Along the rift axis, deformation associated with large sub‐salt normal faults created coupled and decoupled supra‐salt faults. Tilting of the hanging wall associated with growth of the large normal faults along the rift axis also promoted a thin‐skinned, gravity‐driven deformation leading to a range of extensional and compressional structures affecting the syn‐rift interval. The Steinbit Accommodation Zone contains rift‐related structural styles that encompass elements seen along both the rift margin and axis. The wide variability in structural style and evolution of syn‐rift depocentres recognised in this study has implications for the geomorphological evolution of rifts, sediment routing systems and stratigraphic evolution in rifts that contain pre‐rift salt units.     

Exposed evaporite diapirs and minibasins above a canopy in central Sverdrup Basin,Axel Heiberg Island,Arctic Canada

Axel Heiberg Island (Arctic Archipelago, northern Nunavut, Canada) contains the thickest Mesozoic section in Sverdrup Basin (11 km). The ca. 370‐km‐long island is second only to Iran in its concentration of exposed evaporite diapirs. Forty‐six diapirs of Carboniferous evaporites and associated minibasins are excellently exposed on the island. Regional anticlines, which formed during Paleogene Eurekan orogeny, trend roughly north on a regular ca. 20‐km wavelength and probably detach on autochthonous Carboniferous Otto Fiord Formation evaporites comprising halite overlain by thick anhydrite. In contrast, a 60‐km‐wide area, known as the wall‐and‐basin structure (WABS) province, has bimodal fold trends and irregular (<10 km) wavelengths. Here, crooked, narrow diapirs of superficially gypsified anhydrite crop out in tight anticline cores, which are separated by wider synclinal minibasins. We interpret the WABS province to detach on a shallow, partly exposed canopy of coalesced allochthonous evaporite sheets. Surrounding strata record a salt‐tectonic history spanning the Late Triassic (Norian) to the Paleogene. Stratigraphic thinning against diapirs and spectacular angular unconformities indicate mild regional shortening in which diapiric roof strata were bulged up and flanking strata steepened. This bulging culminated in the Hauterivian, when diapiric evaporites broke out and coalesced to form a canopy. As the inferred canopy was buried, it yielded second‐generation diapirs, which rose between minibasins subsiding into the canopy. Consistent high level emplacement suggests that all exposed diapirs inside the WABS area rose from the canopy. In contrast, diapirs along the WABS margins were sourced in autochthonous salt as first‐generation diapirs. Apart from the large diapir‐flanking unconformities, Jurassic‐Cretaceous depositional evidence of salt tectonics also includes submarine debris flows and boulder conglomerates shed from at least three emergent diapirs. Extreme local relief, tectonic slide blocks, steep talus fans and subaerial debris flows suggest that many WABS diapirs continue to rise today. The Axel Heiberg canopy is one of only three known exposed evaporite canopies, each inferred or known at a different structural level: above the canopy (Axel Heiberg), through the canopy (Great Kavir) and beneath a possible canopy (Sivas).     

Salt dissolution features in saline lakes of the northern Great Plains, western Canada

Large-scale salt dissolution is an important process affecting the sediments of many of the saline lakes in the northern Great Plains region of western Canada. The most easily recognized features of this salt karst are water-filled chimneys, vertical shafts, and collapse structures. The largest individual chimneys can be up to 20 m deep and 50 m in diameter, with volumes exceeding 25,000 m³. Large, mud-filled chimneys and cavities, and salt-filled chimneys have also been identified in both the modern lakes and in the Quaternary sediments of the basins, which can adversely affect the salt mining potential of the basins. Because these salt karst features can affect large vertical sections of the sediment fill in the lakes, their recognition is of fundamental importance in attempting to use the stratigraphic records of the basins for paleoenvironmental research.     

Insulating effect of coals and organic rich shales: implications for topography-driven fluid flow, heat transport, and genesis of ore deposits in the Arkoma Basin and Ozark Plateau

ABSTRACT Sedimentary rocks rich in organic matter, such as coal and carbonaceous shales, are characterized by remarkably low thermal conductivities in the range of 0.2–1.0 W m^?1 °C^?1, lower by a factor of 2 or more than other common rock types. As a result of this natural insulating effect, temperature gradients in organic rich, fine‐grained sediments may become elevated even with a typical continental basal heat flow of 60 mW m^?2. Underlying rocks will attain higher temperatures and higher thermal maturities than would otherwise occur. A two‐dimensional finite element model of fluid flow and heat transport has been used to study the insulating effect of low thermal conductivity carbonaceous sediments in an uplifted foreland basin. Topography‐driven recharge is assumed to be the major driving force for regional groundwater flow. Our model section cuts through the Arkoma Basin to Ozark Plateau and terminates near the Missouri River, west of St. Louis. Fluid inclusions, organic maturation, and fission track evidence show that large areas of upper Cambrian rocks in southern Missouri have experienced high temperatures (100–140 °C) at shallow depths (< 1.5 km). Low thermal conductivity sediments, such as coal and organic rich mudstone were deposited over the Arkoma Basin and Ozark Plateau, as well as most of the mid‐continent of North America, during the Late Palaeozoic. Much of these Late Palaeozoic sediments were subsequently removed by erosion. Our model results are consistent with high temperatures (100–130 °C) in the groundwater discharge region at shallow depths (< 1.5 km) even with a typical continental basal heat flow of 60 mW m^?2. Higher heat energy retention in basin sediments and underlying basement rocks prior to basin‐scale fluid flow and higher rates of advective heat transport along basal aquifers owing to lower fluid viscosity (more efficient heat transport) contribute to higher temperatures in the discharge region. Thermal insulation by organic rich sediments which traps heat transported by upward fluid advection is the dominant mechanism for elevated temperatures in the discharge region. This suggests localized formation of ore deposits within a basin‐scale fluid flow system may be caused by the juxtaposition of upward fluid discharge with overlying areas of insulating organic rich sediments. The additional temperature increment contributed to underlying rocks by this insulating effect may help to explain anomalous thermal maturity of the Arkoma Basin and Ozark Plateau, reducing the need to call upon excessive burial or high basal heat flow (80–100 mW m^?2) in the past. After subsequent uplift and erosion remove the insulating carbonaceous layer, the model slowly returns to a normal geothermal gradient of about 30 °C km^?1.     

Numerical modelling study of mechanisms of mid‐basin salt canopy evolution and their potential applications to the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Salt canopies are present in many of the worldwide large salt basins and are key players in the basins' structural evolution as well as in the development of associated hydrocarbon systems. This study employs 2D finite‐element models which incorporate the dynamical interaction of viscous salt and frictional‐plastic sediments in a gravity‐spreading system. We investigate the general emplacement of salt canopies that form in the centre of a large, autochthonous salt basin. This is motivated by the potential application to a mid‐basin canopy in the NW Gulf of Mexico (GoM) that developed in the late Eocene. Three different salt expulsion and canopy formation concepts that have been proposed in the salt‐tectonic literature for the GoM are tested. Two of these mechanisms require pre‐existing diapirs as precursory structures. We include their evolution in the models to assure a continuous, smooth evolution of the salt‐sediment system. The most efficient canopy formation takes place under the squeezed diapir mechanism. Here, shortening of a region containing pre‐existing diapirs is absorbed by the salt (the weakest part of the system), which is then expelled onto the seafloor. The expulsion rollover mechanism, which evacuates salt from beneath evolving rollover structures and expels it both laterally and to the surface, was not successfully captured by the numerical models. No rollover structures developed and only minor amounts of allochthonous salt emerged to the seafloor. The breached anticline mechanism requires substantial shortening of salt‐cored, pre‐weakened folds such that the salt breaches the anticlines and is expelled to the seafloor. The amount of shortening may be too large to occur in the central part of a salt basin, but may explain canopy evolution closer to the distal end of the allochthonous salt. When applying the different concepts to the northwestern GoM, none of the models adequately describes the entire system, yet the squeezed diapir mechanism captures most structural features of the Eocene paleocanopy. It is nevertheless possible that different mechanisms have acted in combination or sequentially in the northwestern GoM.     

Syn‐sedimentary salt diapirism as a control on fluvial‐system evolution: an example from the proximal Permian Cutler Group,SE Utah,USA

Loading of subsurface salt during accumulation of fluvial strata can result in halokinesis and the growth of salt pillows, walls and diapirs. Such movement may eventually result in the formation of salt‐walled mini‐basins, whose style of architectural infill may be used to infer both the relative rates of salt‐wall growth and sedimentation and the nature of the fluvial‐system response to salt movement. The Salt Anticline Region of the Paradox Basin of SE Utah comprises a series of elongate salt‐walled mini‐basins, arranged in a NW‐trending array. The bulk of salt movement occurred during deposition of the Permian Cutler Group, a wedge of predominantly quartzo‐feldspathic clastic strata comprising sediment derived from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the NE. The sedimentary architecture of selected mini‐basin fills has been determined at high resolution through outcrop study. Mini‐basin centres are characterized by multi‐storey fluvial channel elements arranged into stacked channel complexes, with only limited preservation of overbank elements. At mini‐basin margins, thick successions of fluvial overbank and sheet‐like elements dominate in rim‐syncline depocentres adjacent to salt walls; many such accumulations are unconformably overlain by single‐storey fluvial channel elements that accumulated during episodes of salt‐wall breaching. The absence of gypsum clasts suggests that sediment influx was high, preventing syn‐sedimentary surface exposure of salt. Instead, fluvial breaching of salt‐generated topography reworked previously deposited sediments of the Cutler Group atop growing salt walls. Palaeocurrent data indicate that fluvial palaeoflow to the SW early in the history of basin infill was subsequently diverted to the W and ultimately to the NW as the salt walls grew to form topographic barriers. Late‐stage retreat of the Cutler fluvial system coincided with construction and accumulation of an aeolian system, recording a period of heightened climatic aridity. Aeolian sediments are preserved in the lees of some salt walls, demonstrating that halokinesis played a complex role in the differential trapping of sediment.     

Forward stratigraphic modelling of sediment pathways and depocentres in salt‐influenced passive‐margin basins: Lower Cretaceous,central Scotian Basin

Source‐to‐sink studies and numerical modelling software are increasingly used to better understand sedimentary basins, and to predict sediment distributions. However, predictive modelling remains problematic in basins dominated by salt tectonics. The Lower Cretaceous delta system of the Scotian Basin is well suited for source‐to‐sink studies and provides an opportunity to apply this approach to a region experiencing active salt tectonism. This study uses forward stratigraphic modelling software and statistical analysis software to produce predictive stratigraphic models of the central Scotian Basin, test their sensitivity to different input parameters, assess proposed provenance pathways, and determine the distribution of sand and factors that control sedimentation in the basin. Models have been calibrated against reference wells and seismic surfaces, and implement a multidisciplinary approach to define simulation parameters. Simulation results show that previously proposed provenance pathways for the Early Cretaceous can be used to generate predictive stratigraphic models, which simulate the overall sediment distribution for the central Scotian Basin. Modelling confirms that the shaly nature of the Naskapi Member is the result of tectonic diversion of the Sable and Banquereau rivers and suggests additional episodic diversion during the deposition of the Cree Member. Sand is dominantly trapped on the shelf in all units, with transport into the basin along salt corridors and as a result of turbidity current flows occurring in the Upper Missisauga Formation and Cree Member. This led to sand accumulation in minibasins with a large deposit seawards of the Tantallon M‐41 well. Sand also appears to bypass the basin via salt corridors which lead to the down‐slope edge of the study area. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the grain size of source sediments to the system is the controlling factor of sand distribution. The methodology applied to this basin has applications to other regions complicated by salt tectonics, and where sediment distribution and transport from source‐to‐sink remain unclear.     

Tectonics of the late Mesozoic wide extensional basin system in the China–Mongolia border region

The China–Mongolia border region contains many late Mesozoic extensional basins that together constitute a regionally extensive basin system. Individual basins within the system are internally composed of a family of sub‐basins filled with relatively thin sedimentary piles mostly less than 5 km in thickness. There are two types of sub‐basins within the basins, failed and combined, respectively. The failed sub‐basins are those that failed to continue developing with time. In contrast, the combined ones are those that succeeded in growing by coalescing adjacent previously isolated sub‐basins. Thus, a combined sub‐basin is bounded by a linked through‐going normal fault that usually displays a corrugated trace on map view and a shallower dip on cross‐section. Along‐strike existence of discrete depocenters and alternation of sedimentary wedges of different types validate the linkage origin of combined sub‐basins. Localized high‐strain extension resulted in large‐amount displacement on linked faults, but contemporaneously brought about the cessation of some isolated fault segments and the formation of corresponding failed sub‐basins in intervening areas between active linked faults. Some combined sub‐basins might have evolved into supradetachment basins through time, concurrent with rapid denudation of footwall rocks and formation of metamorphic core complexes in places. A tectonic scenario of the broad basin system can be envisioned as an evolution from early‐stage distributed isolated sub‐basins to late‐stage focused combined or/and supradetachment sub‐basins bounded by linked faults, accompanied by synchronous cessation of some early‐formed sub‐basins. Initiation of the late Mesozoic extension is believed to result from gravitational collapse of the crust that had been overthickened shortly prior to the extension. Compression, arising from collision of Siberia and the amalgamated North China–Mongolia block along the Mongol–Okhotsk suture in the time interval from the Middle to Late Jurassic, led to significant shortening and thickening over a broad area and subsequent extensional collapse. Pre‐ and syn‐extensional voluminous magmatism must have considerably reduced the viscosity of the overthickened crust, thereby not only facilitating the gravitational collapse but enabling the lower‐middle crust to flow as well. Flow of a thicker crustal layer is assumed to have occurred coevally with upper‐crustal stretching so as to diminish the potential contrast of crustal thickness by repositioning materials from less extended to highly extending regions. Lateral middle‐ and lower‐crustal flow and its resultant upward push upon the upper crust provide a satisfying explanation for a number of unusual phenomena, such as supracrustal activity of the extension, absence or negligibleness of postrift subsidence of the basin system, less reduction of crustal thickness after extension, and non‐compression‐induced basin inversion, all of which have been paradoxical in the previous study of the late Mesozoic basin tectonics in the China–Mongolia border region.     

Structural evolution of the Gediz Graben,SW Turkey: temporal and spatial variation of the graben basin

The structural evolution of the Miocene to Recent Gediz Graben is intimately related to the evolution of its southern margin. This margin is shaped by a time‐transgressive, composite structure that possesses flat‐ramp geometry with three separate dip domains: a low‐angle shallow segment; a steeper middle segment; and a low‐angle deeper segment. This geometry was probably produced by one of two mechanisms, which operated perpendicular to the general trend of the graben, resulting in gradual back‐rotation followed by abandonment of the shallow segment as it was dissected by the high‐angle normal fault(s). The geometry of the southern margin structure is not simple along‐strike. It includes broad undulations and discrete fault segments, developed by large‐scale fault growth processes through segment linkage. The along‐strike growth of the southern margin‐bounding structure is responsible for the composite character of the Gediz Graben and controls the observed stratigraphic variability. Two sub‐basins aligned with the major segments of the southern graben margin structure have been investigated. The Salihli and Ala?ehir sub‐basins comprising 3000 m sedimentary thickness are separated by an intervening basement high, that is covered by a thin veneer of post‐Miocene sediments. The two sub‐basins, which evolved as isolated basins during most of the graben history, amalgamated during post‐Miocene time to form the composite configuration of the graben. There is a general east to west trend of growth for the Gediz Graben.     

The timing of salt structure growth in the Southern Permian Basin (Central Europe) and implications for basin dynamics

In this paper, a literature‐based compilation of the timing and history of salt tectonics in the Southern Permian Basin (Central Europe) is presented. The tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of the Southern Permian Basin is influenced by salt movement and the structural development of various types of salt structures. The compilation presented here was used to characterize the following syndepositional growth stages of the salt structures: (a) “phase of initiation”; (b) phase of fastest growth (“main activity”); and (c) phase of burial’. We have also mapped the spatial pattern of potential mechanisms that triggered the initiation of salt structures over the area studied and summarized them for distinct regions (sub‐basins, platforms, etc.). The data base compiled and the set of maps produced from it provide a detailed overview of the spatial and temporal distribution of salt tectonic activity enabling the correlation of tectonic phases between specific regions of the entire Southern Permian Basin. Accordingly, salt movements were initiated in deeply subsided graben structures and fault zones during the Early and Middle Triassic. In these areas, salt structures reached their phase of main activity already during the Late Triassic or the Jurassic and were mostly buried during the Early Cretaceous. Salt structures in less subsided sub‐basins and platform regions of the Southern Permian Basin mostly started to grow during the Late Triassic. The subsequent phase of main activity of these salt structures took place from the Late Cretaceous to the Cenozoic. The analysis of the trigger mechanisms revealed that most salt structures were initiated by large‐offset normal faults in the sub‐salt basement in the large graben structures and minor normal faulting associated with thin‐skinned extension in the less subsided basin parts.     

Architecture of the evaporite accumulation and salt structures dynamics in Tiddlybanken Basin,southeastern Norwegian Barents Sea

An extensive, reprocessed two‐dimensional (2D) seismic data set was utilized together with available well data to study the Tiddlybanken Basin in the southeastern Norwegian Barents Sea, which is revealed to be an excellent example of base salt rift structures, evaporite accumulations and evolution of salt structures. Late Devonian–early Carboniferous NE‐SW regional extensional stress affected the study area and gave rise to three half‐grabens that are separated by a NW‐SE to NNW‐SSE trending horst and an affiliated interference transfer zone. The arcuate nature of the horst is believed to be the effect of pre‐existing Timanian basement grain, whereas the interference zone formed due to the combined effect of a Timanian (basement) lineament and the geometrical arrangement of the opposing master faults. The interference transfer zone acted as a physical barrier, controlling the facies distribution and sedimentary thickness of three‐layered evaporitic sequences (LES). During the late Triassic, the northwestern part of a salt wall was developed due to passive diapirism and its evolution was influenced by halite lithology between the three‐LES. The central and southeastern parts of the salt wall did not progress beyond the pedestal stage due to lack of halite in the deepest evaporitic sequence. During the Triassic–Jurassic transition, far‐field stresses from the Novaya Zemlya fold‐and‐thrust belt reactivated the pre‐salt Carboniferous rift structures. The reactivation led to the development of the Signalhorn Dome, rejuvenated the northwestern part of the salt wall and affected the sedimentation rates in the southeastern broad basin. The salt wall together with the Signalhorn Dome and the Carboniferous pre‐salt structures were again reactivated during post‐Early Cretaceous, in response to regional compressional stresses. During this main tectonic inversion phase, the northwestern and southeastern parts of the salt wall were rejuvenated; however, salt reactivation was minimized towards the interference transfer zone beneath the centre of the salt wall.     

Geology and tectonics of Neoproterozoic salt diapirs and salt sheets in the eastern Willouran Ranges,South Australia

Allochthonous salt structures and associated primary and secondary minibasins are exposed in Neoproterozoic strata of the eastern Willouran Ranges, South Australia. Detailed geologic mapping using high‐quality airborne hyperspectral remote‐sensing data and satellite imagery, combined with a qualitative structural restoration, are used to elucidate the evolution of this complex, long‐lived (>250 Myr) salt system. Field observations and interpretations at a resolution unobtainable from seismic or well data provide a means to test published models of allochthonous salt emplacement and associated salt‐sediment interaction derived from subsurface data in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Salt diapirs and sheets are represented by megabreccias of nonevaporite lithologies that were originally interbedded with evaporites that have been dissolved and/or altered. Passive diapirism began shortly after deposition of the Callanna Group layered evaporite sequence. A primary basin containing an expulsion‐rollover structure and megaflap is flanked by two vertical diapirs. Salt flowed laterally from the diapirs to form a complex, multi‐level canopy, now partly welded, containing an encapsulated minibasin and capped by suprasalt basins. Salt and minibasin geometries were modified during the Late Cambrian–Ordovician Delamerian Orogeny (ca. 500 Ma). Small‐scale structures such as subsalt shear zones, fractured or mixed ‘rubble zones’ and thrust imbricates are absent beneath allochthonous salt and welds in the eastern Willouran Ranges. Instead, either undeformed strata or halokinetic drape folds that include preserved diapir roof strata are found directly below the transition from steep diapirs to salt sheets. Allochthonous salt first broke through the diapir roofs and then flowed laterally, resulting in variable preservation of the subsalt drape folds. Lateral salt emplacement was presumably on roof‐edge thrusts or, because of the shallow depositional environment, via open‐toed advance or extrusive advance, but without associated subsalt deformation.     

南极洲泥盆系概况及其与中国泥盆系之比较

南极洲的泥盆系主要分布于横贯南极山脉的麦克默多和俄亥俄岭－埃尔斯沃思山等两个沉积盆地中。前一个盆地的泥盆系代表从海岸泻湖－河流三角洲到近岸冲积平原的层序；后一个盆地的彭萨科拉山的泥盆系较厚，从非海相冲积扇－冲积平原－浅海相，最后又恢复到非海相沉积环境，但在俄亥俄岭却沉积了厚度不大的浅海相地层，含Ｍａｌｖｉｎｏｋａｆｒｉｃ生物地理大区的海相双壳类、腹足类、三叶虫、竹节石和鱼类等化石。除了上述两个沉积盆地外，在罗斯海两边却出露了火山岩，说明该地当时处于俯冲带附近的火山弧中。中国华南的曲靖型和西北的祁连山型泥盆系也属于滨海相和非海相沉积，它们与南极洲的泥盆系可资比较，但两者的生物地理区系并不相同