The interaction of sedimentation with the change in shape of a developing diapir is modeled in a series of simple sandbox experiments. This model replicates the pillow, diapir, and postdiapir stages of salt movement. Modeling produced rim synclines, crestal unconformities, and turtle-structure anticlines--all features known to be associated with diapirs. By changing experimental parameters such as diapir shape, sedimentation was simulated around various diapiric situations.

One experiment closely matches the sediment distribution around the Oratunga diapir, one of the controversial breccia bodies in the late Precambrian-Cambrian Adelaide geosyncline exposed in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. Rim synclines, unconformities, and bedding attitude around Oratunga resemble those described around salt domes. In addition, the distribution, size, orientation, and lithology of breccia within the Oratunga diapir resemble breccia associated with active salt diapirs in Iran. These data suggest the breccia was emplaced as a salt diapir.