Hossack, J., 1995, Geometric rules of section balancing for salt structures, in M. P. A.

Jackson, D. G. Roberts, and S. Snelson, eds., Salt tectonics: a global perspective:

AAPG Memoir 65, p. 2940.

Chapter 2

Geometric Rules of Section Balancing

for Salt Structures
Jake Hossack
BP Exploration
Uxbridge, Middlesex
U.K.

Abstract
Restored sections provide not only a measure of the viability of structural interpretations but also have the
ability to recreate the geometry of the structures through geologic time. Geologists have known for a long time
that section balancing is more difficult in salt structures because of the ability of the salt to flow in and out of the
plane of section and also to dissolve and thereby violate constant volume considerations. However, the surrounding sediments generally deform by brittle-plastic processes and are less able to flow out of the plane of a
properly chosen section. The pragmatic approach is to restore sections by assuming constant-area conditions for
the sediment structures alone and to leave the salt area as gaps that may change in area through time. Most
restorations of salt structures suggest that throughout long periods of geologic time, salt remains at or close to
the depositional surface and that volume reductions of up to 50% are possible in nature.
Salt structures usually involve regional displacements of the salt and its surrounding sediments so that extension in one place has to be balanced by basement extension or cover contraction in another. A key aid to the
recognition of contraction and extension is the regional elevation of reference horizons. Generally, salt withdrawal and extensional faulting drop reference beds below regional elevation, whereas salt pillowing , salt sheet
formation, and contraction will raise beds above regional elevation. In the Gulf of Mexico, the updip extensional growth faulting and salt withdrawal are balanced by the formation of downdip allochthonous salt sheets and
fold and thrust belts, so that the total linear strain across the sediment cover is zero. The extension and contraction are linked by a series of salt and fault welds that lie at several structural levels.

Many salt bodies and their surrounding withdrawal

basins have complicated three-dimensional geometries
implying that salt generally flows through the plane of
any geologic section. Hence, the usual assumptions of
two-dimensional area preservation (Dahlstrom, 1969;
Hossack, 1979) do not apply to salt. This has probably
caused many geologists to conclude that salt restorations
are not worthwhile or reliable and that not much can be
learned from palinspastic salt restorations.
I have a more optimistic view. Recent work carried out
by the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory in Austin,
Texas, has suggested that, although salt is geologically a
viscous fluid that can flow easily through a structure, the
surrounding sediments that constrain the salt will behave
as a brittle-plastic material during deformation (Weijermars et al., 1993; Jackson and Vendeville, 1994). Most of
the laboratory models described from the Applied
Geodynamics Laboratory (Vendeville and Jackson,
1992a,b; Jackson and Vendeville, 1994) initiate the salt
structures by general two-dimensional brittle deforma-

INTRODUCTION
Trusheim (1960) used palinspastic sketches to illustrate
the evolution of North German diapirs and to help the
reader follow the complicated evolution of diapirs and
salt-withdrawal basins through geologic time. With the
increased availability of computers, section balancing of
salt tectonics has become more rigorous (Moretti and
Larrere, 1989; Rowan and Kligfield, 1989; Worrall and
Snelson, 1989; Schultz-Ela, 1992). Generally, the shape
changes undergone by a salt body are more extreme than
those undergone by hanging walls during extensional
and contractional deformation, so that the geologist has a
more difficult task in recreating the evolution of the salt
structures. Salt is also prone to disappear through time by
flow and dissolution or to change cross-sectional area by
flow in and out of the plane of section (Jenyon, 1987) .
Hence, section restoration is the only way in which salt
volumes can be recreated in the past from present-day
data sets.
29

30

Hossack

Figure 1Three-dimensional
model of a salt diapir, based
on Applied Geodynamics
Laboratory experiments, with
brittle-plastic sediments above
and surrounding viscous salt
after reactive, active, and passive phases of diapirism. The
initiating linear graben in the
prekinematic overburden
localized extensional faults in
the synkinematic sediments.
Plane of cross section is
drawn in the direction of
regional extension.

Passive diapir with

synkinematic regional
extension

Cros
sectis
o

Salt
dome

Section trace

Synkinematic

atic

inem

Pre-k

S a lt w it
h d ra

Regional
extension

wal

Synkinematic
Width
uncertain

Passive diapirism

Surface dissolution

Figure 2A schematic present-day cross section

through the model of Figure 1
with the salt area left blank.
The blank areas represent the
greatest uncertainty in the section and in the subsequent
restoration process.

Pre-kinematic

Reactive
diapirism

Active

Thickness
uncertain

tion in extension and less commonly in contraction.

Although salt-related structures commonly vary along
strike, the model sediments do not strain in this direction
to any great extent. Thus, it is generally possible to balance the sediments in the models and, by analogy, the
sediments in nature at two-dimensional, constant-area
conditions (following the rules of Dahlstrom, 1969) in the
main transport direction. This may be a contentious view.
M. Rowan (personal communication, 1994) believes it is
impossible to find a regional transport direction in an area
as complicated as the Gulf of Mexico, whereas Peel et al.
(1995) have noted that the salt structures of the northern
Gulf of Mexico can be interpreted as an amalgamation of
three nonsynchronous, two-dimensional, gravity-spreading systems. These systems are oriented parallel to the
continental slope and have extension at their updip ends,
contraction at their toes, and strike-slip transfer zones at
their margins. Peel et al. (1995) further note that there is a
fractal distribution of these gravity systems on all scales
and that they are basically two-dimensional deformation
systems. Hence, I remain optimistic about two-dimensional salt balancing.

Vendeville and Jackson (1992a,b) and Jackson and

Vendeville (1994) have documented that model salt
diapirs evolve through several distinct stages of development. Stage one is reactive diapirism, which initiates linear salt walls below the floors of linear grabens. Stage two
corresponds to a brief phase of active upbuilding, where
the salt attempts to lift up and can pierce its overburden.
Once at the model surface, the salt is able to keep up with
sedimentation, as the diapir grows, by passive downbuilding during the third stage. As long as there is sufficient unimpeded supply of salt from the mother layer, the
diapir top remains at the surface as its total height increases with sedimentation. There is a general tendency for the
diapir to contract upward toward a smaller, more circular
cross section as it passes into the passive phase. If natural
diapirs are similar to the model diapirs, a salt dome
should have a geometry similar to that shown in Figures
1 and 2. The viscous salt will be totally encased in brittleplastic sediment (Weijermars et al., 1993), which deforms
regionally in a two-dimensional manner. There will be a
regional strike and a regional transport direction normal
to this direction. Salt can withdraw into the diapir from

Chapter 2Geometric Rules of Section Balancing for Salt Structures

a)

Pre-kinematic
Model salt

Basement

b)
46 h

Synkinematic layers

0 hr

4% extension

both the regional strike and dip direction. A cross section

drawn in the regional transport direction for the sediment
deformation (Figure 2) can be restored in a constant-area,
two-dimensional fashion with areas of uncertainty in the
width of the diapir and the thickness of the mother salt
layer. A pragmatic approach is to restore the section, leaving the salt area as a blank space, and to restore the sediment blocks around the salt, which will show the shape
and potential volume of the salt gap back through time.

SECTION VALIDATION
Traditionally, section balancing has been used to test
the viability and admissibility of a geologic interpretation
(Dahlstrom, 1969; Elliott, 1983). Interpretations that cannot be restored successfully are deemed to be in error and
should be redrawn until they can be balanced. Generally,
a single geologic data set can be restored in more than one
way, so that several solutions should be created. Errors
can also be introduced by incorrect stratigraphic correlations, inadequate depth conversions, and inaccurate
decompaction routines, but these errors will not be considered in this review. The use of computer packages
such as GEOSEC (Rowan, 1994) and LOCACE (Moretti
and Larrere, 1989) makes the development of multiple
solutions easier to achieve and forces an interpreter to be
more rigorous in interpretation. There is still no agreed
method in the literature for restoration mechanisms for
sediments associated with salt structures. Two methods
are generally available in restoration programs: flexural
slip and inclined simple shear. The former is used in contractional thrust belts so that constant bed lengths are
retained in constant-area deformations. Extensional fault
restorations usually use inclined shear restorations that
do not retain constant bed lengths. I have used both shear
and flexural slip methods in my salt restorations, the former where the style is dominated by extension and salt
withdrawal and the latter where contraction is dominant.
One of the key concepts used in section balancing is
the idea of regional elevation. This is the level to which a

31

Figure 3Sequential development of a physical model

(Weston et al., 1993) during
extension, showing (a) the initial
model and (b) the model after
46 hours. A 4% basementinduced extension has created
a withdrawal syncline on the left
and a salt pillow on the right.
The dashed line in (b) shows
the initial or regional elevation
of the top of the prekinematic
section. In the withdrawal syncline, the reference bed after 46
hours was lowered below
regional elevation, whereas in
the contractional pillow, the
same bed was raised above
regional elevation.

key bed will return in the undeformed state and is an

essential component of area-balance calculations (Hossack, 1979). Estimating regional elevation is often a repetitive trial-and-error process of projecting the level of key
beds into the section from an area where there has been
no deformation. Traditionally, the dip and elevation of
reference beds are projected in from the foreland in
thrust belt restorations or from the footwall into the
hanging wall in extensional restorations. Regional elevation is a powerful tool to decide the style of deformation
because reference beds are raised above regional elevation during contraction and lowered below regional elevation during extension. During inversion (Cooper and
Williams, 1989), the regional concept is even more powerful because reference beds beneath the null point of a
fault remain below regional elevation after deformation,
whereas beds above the point rise above regional. Hence,
the null point may be used in some circumstances to
delineate regional elevation.
A description of regional elevation also plays a key role
in salt balancing. Figure 3 describes a laboratory model
(Weston et al., 1993) in which a rigid basement made up
of tilted domino blocks, overlain by model salt and a
higher sedimentary overburden, was extended. The
extension initiated salt withdrawal and pillowing. The
deformation can be defined by the initial and final positions of a prekinematic marker bed. The position of the
bed in the undeformed state is shown in Figure 3 as line 0,
which is the regional elevation of the bed. Surprisingly, in
spite of the overall extension of the model, the salt withdrawal and differential loading in one place create a salt
pillow that rises above regional elevation in another. This
suggests a linked model (Figure 4) that can be internally
balanced even where there is no basement extension. The
differential loading and withdrawal create an accommodation space that becomes filled with sediment. Under
perfect two-dimensional constant-area conditions, the
excess area of the accommodation space below regional
elevation (labeled A in Figure 3) (Hossack, 1979) will
equal the area of excess section of the salt pillow (A) or a
reference sedimentary horizon above regional elevation

32

Hossack

Figure 4A schematic section

showing linked salt withdrawal
and pillowing. The section is
internally balanced by area
and line length. The area of
excess section below regional
elevation (A) is equal to the
areas of excess section above
regional elevation (A' or A'').

Figure 5A schematic section

showing linked extensional
faulting and thrusting where
the extension (e) is balanced
by the shortening (s). The salt
layer acts as a detachment
linking the extension and contraction. The deformation can
be driven either by gravitational gliding or spreading.

Withdrawal

Pillowing
Top Pre-kinematic
Regional

Synkinematic

A"

A
d

atic

em

in
re-k

l
Top Salt Regiona

A'

Salt

Synkinematic

A
d

elsewhere (A). The model is independent of the driving

force for the deformation, so that the sediment loading
can create its own accommodation space or the sediment
merely fills a preexisting space. In the general case of
three-dimensional strain, the three areas of excess section
need not be equal. Under these conditions, perfect line
length balancing becomes impossible.
Another self-balancing model is suggested in Figure 5,
where extension is linked to contraction by a detachment
on the top of a salt layer. The extension drops a reference
bed in the prekinematic section below regional elevation
to create sediment accommodation space (labeled A in
Figure 5), which is balanced by the area of contractional
excess section in the fold (A). The linked system can be
driven either by downslope gravity gliding or gravity
spreading of a wedge. In general, with salt flow in and
out of the section, the areas will not balance and line
length may not be preserved. However, the brittle-plastic
deformation in the encasing sediments may constrain
them to retain approximate constant bed lengths. A comparison of Figures 4 and 5 suggests that extension and salt
withdrawal are equivalent because they both lower reference horizons below regional elevation; conversely, salt
pillowing and folding are equivalent because they raise
beds above regional.
More complicated models can be created that link
extension and withdrawal with pillowing and folding
that can be internally balanced (Figure 6). A further complication that can be added to these conceptual balancing
models is the creation of an allochthonous salt sheet
(Worrall and Snelson, 1989; West, 1989; Duval et al., 1992).
Consider that updip extension has created a downdip
contractional salt pillow that balances the extension (A =
A1 in Figure 7). Imagine that in some unspecified way, the
salt in the core of the pillow (A1) is siphoned off and
transferred to a higher structural level to create the alloch-

A'

Regional elevation

Pre-kinematic

Pre-kinematic
Salt

thonous salt sheet (A3). During the transfer, the pillow

deflates and the prekinematic beds return to regional elevation onto a salt weld (Jackson and Cramez, 1989) so
that areas A1 and A2 disappear. A conceptual stem, which
may also be a salt weld, connects the deflated pillow with
the salt sheet. In the perfect two-dimensional case, the
extensional excess section (A in Figure 7) equals the
excess area of the original pillow (A1), which in turn
equals the area of salt in the sheet (A3). Allochthonous salt
sheets are equivalent to contraction and pillowing as they
raise rockin this case saltabove regional elevation.
The model does not depend on the mode of transfer of
the salt to a higher level. It could be intruded as a salt sill
(Nelson and Fairchild, 1989) or extruded across the
ground surface as a salt glacier (McGuinness and Hossack, 1993a,b; Fletcher et al., 1995).
All these conceptual models are combined in Figure 8
into a self-balancing system that links extension and salt
withdrawal to downdip folding and thrusting and
allochthonous salt canopies. Various parts of the system
are linked by fault welds and salt welds (Hossack and
McGuinness, 1990) and detachments. The higher salt
canopies in turn can form new detachment systems so
that the weld detachments can occur at several different
levels in the section. This model explains the enigma that
faced Worrall and Snelson (1989), who were unable to
balance one of their regional cross sections in the Gulf of
Mexico because 40 km of updip extension on listric
growth faults could only be balanced by 5 km of shortening in a downdip fold and thrust belt. The balancing
problem was compounded by an age difference between
the growth faults and the thrusts. However, a large salt
canopy, close to the sea floor, lies in their section between
the extension faults and the thrusts, so that the missing
extension can conceptually be taken up by the formation
of the allochthonous salt sheet.

Chapter 2Geometric Rules of Section Balancing for Salt Structures

Regional elevation

A1

A2

A1"

Figure 6A schematic section that links extension, salt

withdrawal, pillowing, and
folding. In a perfect constantarea deformation, A1 + A2 =
A1'' + A2''.

A2"

Pre-kinematic
Synkinematic

Figure 7Formation of an
allochthonous salt sheet.
Updip extension with excess
area (A) is balanced by
downdip contractional salt
pillowing (A1 or A2). The
allochthonous salt sheet is
created by removing the salt
from the core of the pillow
(A1) to the sheet higher in the
section (A3) and allowing the
pillow (A1) to deflate.

Post-kinematic

A3
Synkinematic

A2

Pre-kinematic

33

A1
Pre-kinematic

Salt
Basement

Extensional
rear

Salt sheet
Water

Fault
Weld

Translation

Stem

Fault weld

UNDERSTANDING THE SECTION

As well as providing confidence in the admissibility
and viability of a section, section balancing has a more
important role to play in the study of salt structures
helping the interpreter to understand the development of
the salt body and its relationships to the surrounding sediments through time. From a snapshot in the present, it is
possible to reconstruct many millions of years of geologic history.
My first example is a sandbox model from the Applied
Geodynamics Laboratory. Experiment 146 helped to confirm a geologic process that explains the creation of
allochthonous salt sheets by glacial extrusion of salt
across the sea floor (Fletcher et al., 1993; Hudec et al.,
1993; McGuinness and Hossack, 1993a,b) (Figure 9).
Previously, the allochthonous salt sheets in the Gulf of
Mexico were believed to be intrusive sills (Nelson and
Fairchild, 1989). Internally at BP, D. McGuinness and I
developed a glacier model based on several backstripped
sections from the Gulf of Mexico that seemed to show salt
sheets spreading out through time over the sea floor at

Thrusts

Contractional
toe

Figure 8A totally linked

system, based on sections
from the Gulf of Mexico (Peel
et al., 1995), which balances
extension and salt withdrawal by folding, thrusting, and
allochthonous salt sheets.
Linkages among the different
parts of the tectonic system
are provided by salt welds,
fault welds, and detachments.

the sedimentwater interface. Independent model 146

was an exciting confirmation that glacial spreading of salt
was mechanically reasonable. The model created a subhorizontal salt sheet that climbs periodically up through
ramps in a sedimentary section and is overlain by synkinematic sediment in salt-withdrawal basins. We did not
have access to the complete experimental results, and so
to understand how such a structure could have developed, McGuinness backstripped the section on LOCACE.
M. Jackson (personal communication, 1993) confirmed
that McGuinness restoration, which was largely unconstrained, accurately recreated the structural development
of the model. Jackson provided constraints from a full
data set of the experiment, which have been incorporated
into a second LOCACE restoration using flexural slip
algorithms (Figure 9) to better constrain the geometries.
The restoration confirms that the salt body began as a
salt wedge at the left end of the section, which was overlain by a thin prekinematic sedimentary roof. As a result
of sedimentary progradation from the left, the salt wedge
folded the prekinematic section into a large box fold that
failed by local extensional tectonic excision on its frontal

34

Hossack

a)

0 km

10

20

30

FINAL STATE

2 km

10

b)

10

20

30

10

20

30

10

c)
5

10

d)

10

20

30

10

e)

10

20

30

10

f)

10

20

INITIAL STATE

8
10

Figure 9A LOCACE restoration of Applied Geodynamics Laboratory experiment 146, which created an allochthonous
salt sheet by glacier-like spreading of the model salt across the surface of the model.

Chapter 2Geometric Rules of Section Balancing for Salt Structures

10

0km

20

30

30

Figure 10Present-day depth

section through the Machar
and Medan diapirs in the
Eastern Trough of the Central
Graben, North Sea.

0km
M

35

10

15
M

2109604

Miocene

Palaeocene

Lower Jurassic

Oligocene

Cretaceous

Triassic

Eocene

Upper Jurassic

Basement

limb, exposing salt at the model surface. Forward in time,

the salt spread as a glacier over the surface of the model,
and the frontal limb of the fold was overturned by a flap
rotation into a recumbent syncline that was overridden
by the salt glacier. As the salt glacier moved forward, it
carried with it a stretched roof of the original prekinematic section as a series of separate rafts. Eventually the
rafts overrode their equivalent stratigraphic section in the
recumbent footwall syncline beneath the salt to produce
a triple repetition of the same stratigraphy above and
below the salt. Continuing sediment progradation from
the left built sediment wedges out on top of the salt glacier, which continued to spread and climb section to the
right to form a successive salt canopy at the right end of
the section. The canopies became segmented by continuing sediment deposition and salt withdrawal, so that
remnant parts of the canopy are connected by salt welds
(Jackson and Cramez, 1989; West, 1989). The initial and
improved versions of this restoration confirm the importance of backstripping in recreating the geologic history
of a section correctly.
The second example (Figure 10) is a regional depth
section through the Eastern Trough of the Central North
Sea Graben (Foster and Rattey, 1993). The section is
through the Machar and Medan salt diapirs, which are
interpreted to sit above the basement faults that form the
margins to a graben in the Eastern Trough. The diapirs
root down into the Permian Zechstein mother salt layer,
which existed both within the graben trough and the
marginal highs. Both diapirs have steep-sided contacts
that penetrate up through Mesozoic and Tertiary stratigraphy, proving that the diapirs have had a long history
of evolution. The end of diapirism is marked by the age
of the oldest sediments that cover the diapir crest. The
two diapirs have become dormant at different geologic
times: the Machar diapir on the left reaches up to near the
top of the Paleocene, whereas the Medan diapir on the
right has penetrated into a younger section as high as the
middle Miocene. The Paleocenemiddle Miocene section
of the Machar diapir, however, is folded and stratigraphically thinned above the diapir crest, suggesting a more
gradual decay in the diapir history compared to the
Medan.

Salt

Figure 1

Figure 11 shows a LOCACE restoration of the section

without decompaction back to the Triassic. Regionally,
salt diapirism was initiated in the Early Triassic (Smith et
al., 1993), and this restoration suggests that 5 km of cover
extension in the Triassic was present locally to initiate the
early reactive diapirism that formed the salt walls that
subsequently developed into the diapirs. By the end of
the Triassic, the diapirs were fully developed and had
reached the passive phase of development. They continued to keep pace with regional sedimentation by remaining close to the earths surface and growing upward by
downbuilding as the sediments accumulated around
them. Passive diapirism continued throughout the
Jurassic, Cretaceous, and early Paleocene, during which
time both crests of the diapirs were continually at the surface through 260 m.y. of geologic time. The Machar diapir
began to be covered by sediment in the Paleocene as the
grounding of the flanking blocks cut off its salt supply,
whereas the Medan continued to grow. During this time,
the Machar still showed some activity, as the Paleocene
middle Miocene sediments above the diapir crest were
arched above regional elevation in a rejuvenated phase of
attempted active piercement.
By the late Miocene, both diapirs had become completely inactive and were covered by upper Tertiary sediments. The timing of the basement faulting is uncertain.
Assuming that there was a Permian and Early Triassic
phase of rifting in the Central Graben (Smith et al., 1993)
followed by a Late Jurassic rift event, the restorations
show slip on the basement faults both in the Triassic and
Jurassic. However, to minimize the vertical thickness of
salt in the section, the cover has been pinned onto basement at the right end of the section (Figure 11). Hence, the
restorations provide an estimate of the minimum salt
thicknesses. The earliest time at which the overburden is
judged to have welded onto basement is at the end of the
Miocene because stratigraphic thickness changes related
to salt withdrawal occurred in the Eastern Trough from
the Triassic to late Miocene. If sediment decompaction
had been applied during the backstripping, the sediment
columns and diapirs would have been respectively thicker and higher in the center of the section. However, the
timing relationships to the welding should not change

36

Hossack

e)

0 km

10

20

30

40

50

0 km

10

MIOCENE

15

d)

10

20

30

40

50

10

TOP CRETACEOUS

15

c)

10

20

30

40

50

2
4
6
8
10
12
14

TOP JURASSIC

16

b)

10

20

30

40

50

4
6
8

TRIASSIC ACTIVE DIAPIRISM

10

a)

10

20

30

40

50

4
6
8
10
12

TRIASSIC REACTIVE DIAPIRISM

Figure 11LOCACE restoration of Figure 10. The sediment layers were not decompacted during the backstripping.

Chapter 2Geometric Rules of Section Balancing for Salt Structures

Reactive
diapirs
Active
diapirism

Thickness (km)

37

Figure 12Change in apparent

source layer thickness in the
deepest part of the basin
through time as measured in
the LOCACE restorations
shown in Figure 11ae.

Passive
Diapirs
Active
diapirism
Basement
faulting

Basement
faulting

TR

250

Palaeogene

J
200

150

Age (Ma)

100

Neogene

50

Reactive / active
diapirism

Figure 13Change in the total

area of the salt in the restored
sections of Figure 11 through
time. Timing of the various
stages of diapir development
is indicated. The area, which is
a minimum estimate, has
reduced by 50% since the
Permian.

Max. rate of
dome growth
Active
diapirism

100

Area km2

Source layer
depleted

50

High regional
sedimentation
0

P
250

TR

J
200

150

Age (Ma)

100

because the geometric effects of the ending of salt-withdrawal thickness changes should be unaffected by compaction unless there are some considerable lateral facies
changes. Some simple measurements were taken from
the nondecompacted stratigraphic thicknesses and areas
of the salt and sediment in the thickest and deepest part
of the trough through time, and these provide further
background on the geologic history (Figures 1215). With
decompaction, the reported rates of sedimentation and
diapir growth would be higher, but the relative rates and
times of maximum growth would not change.
Figure 12 plots the change in the source layer thickness
from the reactive diapir stage in the Triassic to the final
death of the diapirs in the Neogene. The area of salt at
each stage of the restoration depends on the geometric
relationships between the cover and the basement extensions in the section, but these are assumed identical here.

Palaeogene
50

Neogene
0

The source layer thickness appears to have decayed since

the Triassic on two successive exponential decay curves.
The first curve shows a rapid decrease in layer thickness
back to the early Paleogene, close to the time of the
Machar reactivation, then a farther exponential decay
throughout the Neogene.
Figure 13 plots the apparent minimum change in the
salt area through geologic time. The restorations suggest
a minimum area change of 100 km2 in the Triassic that
decays in a similar double-stepped manner to a presentday minimum of 50 km2an area loss of 50%. Again, the
step in the graph coincides with the step in the salt thickness graph (Figure 12) and with the time of maximum
dome growth.
Variations in the rates of growth of the Machar dome
through time also show two phases in the history (Figure
14). Dome growth was initiated in the Late TriassicEarly

Hossack

Figure 14Maximum gross

rate of increase in height or
growth of the Machar dome
through time without decompaction effects being estimated. Applying decompaction
would increase the absolute
rates but would not change
the relative shape of the
graph.

0.3

Inversion
0.2

km / Ma

38

Basement
faulting
Basement
faulting

0.1

Active
diapirism

P
250

TR

J
200

Jurassic with a rejuvenation in the Paleogene, which

coincides with the regional Alpine inversion event. The
earliest phase of dome growth is a result of initiation by
the Triassic rift phase, whereas the regional Late Jurassic
rift event did not appear to have had any effect on the
growth of these diapirs. This might suggest that Jurassic
rifting was not an important event in this area. The
Tertiary rejuvenation did not correspond to a known rift
event. However, the rejuvenation seems to coincide with
several pulses of more rapid regional sedimentation
(Figure 15). Sedimentation rates were higher in the
Triassic and Jurassic during the regional rifting events.
However, the Tertiary peaks in the sediment aggradation
rate coincide with major uplift of the United Kingdom
and the Atlantic margin and with the Alpine inversion in
the North Sea (Ziegler, 1990). Two explanations are possible for the attempted reactivation of the Machar diapir,
which was able to lift the overlying sediments above
regional elevation. Either the increased sediment loading
at the time of active aggradation increased the buoyancy
forces in the salt source layer that still remained to cause
the uplift, or the active compression of the Alpine inversion was able to squeeze the diapir and lift its lid (Nilsen
et al., 1995).

CONCLUSIONS
Palinspastic restorations of geologic sections through
salt structures can test the validity of geologic interpretations. However, more importantly, the restorations provide a kinematic view of the development of the structures through time. As for all other types of palinspastic
restorations, care has to be taken in choosing the orientation of the section so that the line is parallel to the displacement vectors of the faults in the surrounding sediment carapace. Hence, constant-area conditions will
apply to the sediments during the restoration. Salt can
easily flow in a viscous manner in and out of the plane of

150

Age (Ma)

100

Palaeogene
50

Neogene
0

section. Pragmatic experience suggests that the salt is best

left as a gap in the section between the surrounding sediment fault blocks. These spaces represent the area of
greatest uncertainty in the restoration. During the active
and passive phases of salt diapirism, which generally correspond to the largest part of the development history of
salt diapirs and allochthonous salt sheets, salt is nearly
always at or very close to the earths surface. Hence, this
is the time when salt dissolution is most active. Generally,
the apparent area of salt in the restored sections nearly
always increases backward through time, which corresponds to true loss of salt volume forward in time. The
Eastern Trough example described here has apparently
lost 50% of its salt area between diapir initiation in the
Triassic and the death of the diapirs in the Miocene.
Throughout this time, the diapirs were either continuously exposed at the surface or were covered by a thin condensed sediment section that periodically slumped from
the top toward the sides of the diapir to expose the salt to
the elements (R. Anderton, personal communication,
1993). Salt dissolution thus adjusted to the salt supply rate
so that salt was able to stay at the same level as the sediment depositional surface.
Salt diapirs and allochthonous salt sheets can be
formed in both extensional and contractional environments, and in some basins, both tectonic styles are combined in linked self-balancing systems. Salt withdrawal
and extension are geometrically equivalent because they
both lower reference horizons in the overburden below
regional elevation. Salt pillowing, folding, and allochthonous salt sheets are equivalent to contraction because
they raise reference horizons above regional. In a self-balancing system, such as the Gulf of Mexico, the updip salt
withdrawal and extensional growth faults can be conceptually balanced downdip by folding, thrusting, and salt
canopy formation. Where compensating canopies or fold
and thrust belts are absent, the extension faults initiating
the diapirism must be balanced by equivalent extension
in the basement.

Chapter 2Geometric Rules of Section Balancing for Salt Structures

0.15

Active
diapirism
Inversion

km / Ma

0.10

Basement
faulting

Basement
faulting

39

Figure 15Estimate of
regional aggradation rates in
the center of the basin without decompaction effects
being estimated. Applying
decompaction would
increase the absolute rates
but would not change the
relative shape of the graph.

0.05

P
250

TR

J
200

150

Age (Ma)

100

AcknowledgmentsThe ideas in this paper matured over

several years during discussions with many BP colleagues. I
would particularly like to thank Dorie McGuinness, Frank
Peel, Chris Travis, and Roger Anderton for their help and criticism over the years. Martin Jackson and the Applied
Geodynamics Laboratory group provided an external sense
check on many occasions, and I would like to thank Martin,
Mark Rowan, and an unknown reviewer for pointing out many
logical, stylistic, and drafting errors in my original manuscript,
which helped to improve the final product.

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