000 02189nab a2200205 4500
005 20260520000236.0
008 260224s2010 xxu
245 0 0 _aInteraction between prerift salt and detachment faulting in hyperextended rift systems: The example of the Parentis and Mauléon basins (Bay of Biscay and western Pyrenees)
260 _a
_b
_cjul. 2010
270 _a13/08/2010 ; 13/08/2010
300 _a20 p. ; 957-976
520 _aTranscripción del resumen del autor. Prerift salt layers associated with extensional detachment faults exhuming mantle and deeper crustal rocks at the sea floor are observed in the Parentis and Arzacq-Mauléon basins located at the eastern termination of the Bay of Biscay. How detachment faults interact with salt in hyperextended rift systems is yet little understood. Based on field observations and drill-hole and seismic data, we propose a new model to explain the interaction between salt tectonics and extensional detachment systems. We demonstrate that the presence of a thick prerift salt layer in an area undergoing extreme crustal thinning can control the geometry and evolution of rift systems and obscure the rift-related structures in the underlying basement. During an initial stage of rifting, prerift salt layers act as a decoupling horizon between sub- and suprasalt units and hinder crustal detachment faults to cut through the salt layers and form breakaways at the sea floor. As a consequence, they sole out along the ductile salt layer and no subsalt material can be exhumed to the sea floor. Thus, sub- and suprasalt layers deform by different deformation modes, which makes that detachment fault difficult to identify on seismic images. In a later stage, when salt has migrated and thinned out, sub- and suprasalt layers can locally couple and detachment faults can be exposed at the surface, resulting in windows of exhumed basement surrounded by extensional allochthons formed by suprasalt sedimentary units.
581 _a7
773 0 _tAAPG Bulletin
_g94
942 _cARTICULO
100 1 _aXiao, Qilin
_946392
100 1 _aHe, Sheng
_940887
100 1 _aYang, Zhi
_946393
999 _c175991
_d175991