Analogue models of salt diapirs and seismic interpretation in the Nordkapp Basin, Norway

Abstract

Dynamically scaled analogue models with an overburden of cohesive sand and a viscous "salt" layer were deformed in a centrifuge to mimic real salt structures in the Nordkapp Basin. Like their natural prototypes, model diapirs were aligned in rows parallel to the basin margins. In profile, model diapirs were asymmetric, suggesting that the real diapirs will possess asymmetric geometries. Like many of the real salt structures, model diapirs pierced without developing a pillow stage because they rose along basin margin faults which propagated up through the overburden from the basement during thick-skinned extension. Once their overburden was weakened by faulting, differential loading forced model diapirs to rise as long as buoyant material was supplied. Some real salt diapirs initially rose as conformable pillows during the early Triassic, became diapiric during middle Triassic and spread broad overhangs during slow sedimentation in late Triassic and Jurassic times. Later, the overhangs reactivated asymmetrically when buried by Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments.