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Foreword Thirty years ago,
a symposium on "Diapiric and Related Structures" formed part of the 1965
AAPG Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The resulting collection of papers
was published as the classic Memoir 8, Diapirism and Diapirs, edited
by J. Braunstein and G. D. O'Brien. Until now, this was the last AAPG book
that focused on salt diapirs, although many papers continued to be published
in the
Bulletin.
Since 1965, the data base of salt tectonics has
evolved at an accelerating rate based on field observation, seismic interpretation,
and advanced structural modeling . These findings and the recognition of
the exploration importance of salt tectonics in more than 80 basins worldwide
indicated that another global attempt to unravel the complexities of salt
tectonics was long overdue.
In August 1990, AAPG's Science
Director, Gary Howell, first suggested to one of us the idea of holding
a Hedberg International Research Conference on "Salt Tectonics" with worldwide
scope. After a formal meeting with him in May 1991, the three compiling
editors accepted the task of convening the symposium, which was held in
Bath, U.K., on September 13-17, 1993.
The timing of this conference
was propitious. The preceding four years had seen an explosive expansion
in papers dealing with salt tectonics. In particular, this field of study
had just passed through a major conceptual breakthrough based on three-dimensional
seismic data and innovative kinematic and dynamic modeling of salt tectonics.
The objective of the conference was to highlight and share these advances
in understanding the structural geology and tectonics of salt structures
at seismic scales in the context of hydrocarbon exploration and development,
including classic areas having abundant data as well as lesser known basins
characterized by newly discovered structural styles. Of special interest
were newer aspects of salt tectonics that were unknown at the symposium
30 years ago. These included controls on the shape and structural evolution
of salt structures, especially the style and rate of sedimentation; the
influence of faulting in extensional, contractional, transtensional, transpressional,
and inversion regimes; emplacement of allochthonous salt sheets and canopies
and their subsequent segmentation and redistribution; the creation of salt
welds and fault welds; and the vernerable but previously neglected field
of contractional salt tectonics.
The program of the Bath conference
was the largest and most comprehensive ever dealing with salt tectonics.
Some 46 papers were presented orally and another 34 displayed as posters
interspersed with discussion sessions that continued well beyond the day's
proceedings. Invitations to the 75 attendees were deliberately skewed to
attract a majority of contributions from industry to ensure release of
abundant new geological and geophysical data of high quality. As a result,
the papers spanned a broad range, covering state-of-the-art seismic imaging,
restoration techniques, and mechanical modeling followed by examination
of salt tectonics (and some shale tectonics) in the following regions:
Gulf of Mexico, Arctic Canada, Barents Sea, North Sea, Spain, Mediterranean
Sea, Algeria, Tunisia, Red Sea, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Caribbean,
Angola, Gabon, and Brazil. The conference was notable for the wealth of
new data and novel ideas offered through formal presentations and informal
discussions among attendees. During the conference, many attendees expressed
a wish to see a fuller collection of papers published rather than the volume
of extended abstracts available only to attendees. Accordingly, they were
asked to respond to a subsequent questionnaire in which they strongly reconfirmed
their earlier wish to see publication of a collection of full-length papers
as an AAPG Memoir.
This volume is the result.
To ensure prompt publication of an affordable book, the length was restricted
to 21 chapters (coincidentally the same number of papers as in Memoir 8)
out of the 80 papers presented at the conference. Not all the presenters
were able to contribute full-length papers, but nevertheless we were able
to be highly
selective in choosing papers
that highlighted key advances in salt tectonics. Our choice |
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