Upper Triassic—Lower Jurassic salt basin southeast of the Grand Banks

Abstract

A grid of multichannel seismic reflection (MCS) profiles has been used to delineate and map a large, apparently tectonically controlled basin and associated diapiric province beneath the continental slope and rise southeast of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The depocenter, for which we propose the name Salar basin, is defined both landward and seaward by pronounced hinges in acoustic basement. It is approximately 400 km long, 35–70 km wide, and covers an area of approximately 20,000 km 2. The southern end of the basin is marked by the intersection of the Southeast Newfoundland Ridge with the South Bank High on the Grand Banks, and the northern end is bounded by the southwestern margin of Flemish Cap. The Salar basin generally parallels the much smaller Carson basin, which lies beneath the Grand Banks immediately to the west, and it merges with this basin north of 45°22′N. Based upon correlation with contiguous deposits sampled by drilling in the Carson basin, we infer piercements filling the Salar basin to be mobilized Late Triassic-Early Jurassic evaporites, probably predominantly halite. A consequent early Mesozoic age for the Salar basin implies a multi-stage rifting history for the Newfoundland Basin, as has been documented for the adjacent Grand Banks. Initial extension, which probably formed the Salar basin's bounding basement hinge zones, occurred in Late Triassic—Early Jurassic time, and was associated with rifting of North America from Africa and extension in western Europe. The presence of early Mesozoic evaporites in a basin southeast of the Grand Banks suggests development of a significant, but shallow and restricted, seaway between the Grand Banks and the Iberian peninsula, probably connected northward with coeval salt provinces of northwestern Europe. A second rift phase related to separation of Iberia and the Grand Banks affected the Grand Banks and Salar basin in Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous time, after a period of epeirogenic subsidence during the Early and Middle Jurassic. Uplift associated with this extension led to the development of the widespread “U” (Avalon) unconformity across the Grand Banks, the Salar basin and the Newfoundland Basin out to the J-Anomaly and may have induced the first halokinesis in the Salar basin. The second rift phase culminated in the initiation of seafloor spreading in mid-Early Cretaceous (Aptian) time at a location now marked by the J-Anomaly.