Salt Tectonics Principles and Practice

Salt tectonics is the study of how and why salt structures evolve and the three-dimensional forms that result. A fascinating branch of geology in itself, salt tectonics is also vitally important to the petroleum industry. Covering the entire scale from the microscopic to the continental, this textbook is an unrivalled consolidation of all topics related to salt tectonics: evaporite deposition and flow, salt structures, salt systems, and practical applications. Coverage of the principles of salt tectonics is supported by more than 600 color illustrations, including 200 seismic images captured by state-of-the-art geophysical techniques and tectonic models from the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at the University of Texas, Austin. These combine to provide a cohesive and wide-ranging insight into this extremely visual subject. This is the definitive practical handbook for professional geologists and geophysicists in the petroleum industry, an invaluable textbook for graduate students, and a reference textbook for researchers in various geoscience fields.

Preface; List of symbols; Part I. Evaporite Deposition and Flow: 1. Introduction; 2. Evaporites and their deposition; 3. Salt flow; Part II. Salt Structures: 4. Salt pillows and salt anticlines; 5. Salt stocks and salt walls; 6. Salt sheets and salt canopies; 7. Minibasins; 8. Internal deformation in salt bodies; 9. Salt welds; Part III. Salt-Tectonic Systems: 10. Extensional salt-tectonic systems; 11. Contractional salt-tectonic systems; 12. Strike-slip salt-tectonic systems; Part IV. Practical Applications of Salt Tectonics: 13. Seismic interpretation of salt structures; 14. Special topics in seismic interpretation of salt canopies; 15. Influence of salt on petroleum systems; Glossary; References; Index.

Martin P. A. Jackson is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology and holds the William L. Fisher Endowed Chair in Geological Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. He founded the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at the University of Texas, a consortium dedicated to research on salt tectonics and supported by the oil industry since 1989. He has taught 73 short courses on salt tectonics to geoscientists around the world. His publications have been cited more than 6800 times (Google Scholar) and have been recognized by five awards from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and from the Geological Society of London.
Michael R. Hudec has been studying salt tectonics for more than 25 years in industry and academia. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, Austin, where he is Principal Investigator in the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory, a consortium dedicated to research on salt tectonics and supported by the oil industry since 1989. He has led over 100 short courses and field trips on salt tectonics for geoscientists around the world. His publications have been cited more than 1400 times (Google Scholar) and have been recognized by numerous awards.