In northern Germany there are more than 200 known salt stocks which are composed of Zechstein salt. Because of favorable geologic conditions, it was possible to reconstruct the historical development of the salt stocks with the aid of reflection-seismic surveys. The development of a single salt stock appears to have started with an accumulation of salt, the so-called "salt pillow." At a later stage, the overlying strata broke, allowing the diapir to form. In northern Germany, genetic connections between salt stocks are recognizable. Some of the larger groups of salt stocks are classified as "salt-stock families." Such salt-stock families consist of several salt stocks grouped around the genetically oldest, which is said to be the "mother salt stock." The rim synclines of he adjacent salt stocks become younger away from the center.

The geologic impulse causing the formation of mother salt stocks is supposedly partly tectonic, whereas the subsequent wave-front-like growth of the salt-stock families took place in a purely halokinetic way, that is, by the movement of salt under the influence of gravity. The absolute rate of the horizontal wave-front-like flow of the salt over great distances averages about 0.3 mm a year.