Salt and Sediment Dynamics

Salt and Sediment Dynamics presents a thorough treatment of salt and sediment interactions and the implications of such interactions for sub-salt exploration. The book emphasizes and utilizes recent discoveries on many aspects of salt and sediment interactions, provides the theoretical framework for interpreting the increasing amount of available data on salt and sediments, and develops a self-consistent dynamical evolution model of salt structures and their interaction with surrounding sediments. The model developed in the text consists of an evolving salt structure that influences sediment motion with self-consistent evolution of sediments and salt shape. The resulting stress and strain in the sediments and the thermal focusing effects of the salt are evaluated. The salt and sediments in the model are consistent with observed geometries, a result of having freely adjustable, observation-controlled model parameters. In addition, the book describes case histories in a variety of geological settings, thus explaining aspects of the genesis and development of salt structures, of their impact on sedimentary structural evolution, and of the impact of sediments on salt masses. The techniques developed by the authors expand the current state of knowledge regarding the evolution and dynamics of salt structures and increase the potential for effective sub-salt hydrocarbon exploration.