About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Houston Geological Society Bulletin

Abstract


Houston Geological Society Bulletin, Volume 53, No. 01, September 13, 2010. Pages 35 and 37.

Abstract: Deep Water Gulf of Mexico Subsalt Structural Framework

Bill Kilsdonk, Rod Graham, and Robin Pilcher
Hess Corporation

Structural styles in the deep water Gulf of Mexico are largely a function of the distribution of salt, its interaction with sedimentary depocenters, the specific Gulf of Mexico linked system involved, and position in that linked system. Nearly basin-wide coverage of highquality 3D seismic data coupled with existing regional 2D data has allowed interpretation of subsalt structural features and their assembly into a broad regional framework. We identify and characterize the following provinces and subsalt structural elements: 1) A deep salt basin and frontal salt napppe; 2) Perdido Foldbelt and Alaminos Canyon gravity minima; 3) Eocene and Miocene regional welds; 4) an “egg crate” province of isolated primary depocenters separated by older salt and younger mini-basins; 5) an area of amalgamated salt and linked primary depocenters; 6) Mississippi Canyon/Atwater and Spirit foldbelts; 7) Sigsbee salt lobe and allochthonous carapace basins; and 8) “ramps” between weld and canopy levels.

Unnumbered figure

Unnumbered figure

Copyright © 2010 by Houston Geological Society. All rights reserved.