Characterization of Oligo-Miocene evaporite-rich minibasins in the Sivas Basin, Turkey

Abstract

Abstract The Sivas Basin in Turkey displays in its central part an Oligo-Miocene halokinetic province which acts as a major outcrop analogue to study salt-sediment interactions. Based on field geology observations, the present paper focuses on the geometry and sedimentology of several minibasins having the particularity of being mainly filled by gypsiferous deposits. Such type of evaporite-rich minibasins remain difficult to identify and are poorly studied in other halokinetic provinces. In the Sivas Basin, the evaporites were recycled from diapiric salts and precipitated in saline ponds emplaced above deflating diapiric stems. Diapir deflation resulted either from local transtensive strain, cessation of diapir feeding and/or subsurface dissolution of the diapiric salt. Minibasin subsidence was likely enhanced by the fast emplacement rate of the capping evaporites, together with the high density of the depositional sulfates compared to the diapiric halite. The evaporite-rich minibasins stand out from their surrounding siliciclastic counter-parts by their small dimension (lower than 1 km-wide), their encased teardrop shape, and their high internal deformations. The later include well-developed halokinetic sedimentary wedges, aerial mega-slumps or inverted flaps. Such structural features probably resulted from the ductile rheology of the evaporite infill and the complex pattern of downbuilding. Although secondary evaporitic minibasins have never been identified in other ancient halokinetic settings, our study highlights that they could developed in any evaporitic environments, coastal or continental, such as in the Precaspian Basin. The secondary minibasins described here can also act as field analogues of other primary evaporite-rich minibasins already suspected in salt giant basins (e.g. in the Santos Basin, Brazil).