96-10 Where the Salt Sheet Ends—Submarine Allochthonous Salt Advance and Secondary Minibasin Horizontal Axis Rotations in The Elda Salt Sheet, Eastern Prebetics (Southern Iberia)

Session: Twenty-Seven Years of Advances in Understanding Salt-Sediment Interaction: A Legacy of Katherine A. Giles

Presenting Author:

David Canova

Authors:

Canova, David Paul¹, Cofrade, Gabriel², Roca, Eduard³, DeMatheis, Marco⁴, Ferrer, Oriol⁵

(1) GEOMODELS Research Institute, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Cièncias de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, (2) GEOMODELS Research Institute, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Cièncias de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, (3) GEOMODELS Research Institute, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Cièncias de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, (4) GEOMODELS Research Institute, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Cièncias de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, (5) GEOMODELS Research Institute, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Cièncias de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain,

Abstract:

This study focuses on the subsalt, syn-contractional, early to middle Miocene (Aquitanian-Langhian) stratigraphy and structure of the Elda Salt Sheet, documenting the subseismic scale deformation and salt-sediment interactions during allochthonous salt advance. Stratigraphic sections, halokinetic fold analysis, geologic field mapping and foraminiferal dating are used to characterize the subsalt sediments exposed in contact with the northwestern edge of the outcropping Elda Salt Sheet. Additionally, we compare the subsalt strata with suprasalt minibasins to assess the regional evolution of allochthonous sheets. Based on the subsalt sedimentary and structural relationships we interpret that the Elda Salt Sheet advanced at least 8 km towards the north during the syn-orogenic Aquitanian – Langhian times before being buried during the latest Langhian - Serravallian times. This overall northward advance can be defined by six main phases. All the phases occur in submarine conditions in a carbonate ramp with water depths ranging from 10’s to 100’s of meters and are: (1) the extrusion of a salt sheet in an inner – outter carbonate ramp environment coeval to the onset of regional Oligocene-Miocene shortening corroborated by an Aquitanian aged flat and stranded intrasalt stringers along the subsalt flat; (2) Burdigalian-early Langhian burial of the salt sheet toe in an outer shelf – basinal environment where pinned inflation, and subsequent breakout of a confined salt sheet is evidenced by a hectometric halokinetic fold ramp and rafts of Burdigalian stratigraphy above the salt sheet. (3) early-middle Langhian rapid lateral advance of the salt sheet along a base salt flat which occurred in a deepwater basinal environment; (4) middle-late Langhian hinderance of the salt advance, development of subsalt decametric thick and decametric spaced halokinetic fold ramps in a basinal – outer shelf environment; (5) late Langhian salt sheet burial by shallow water carbonates and deepwater basinal marlstones; and (6) subsidence of secondary minibasins. Finally, we compare the advance azimuth of the allochthonous sheet with secondary minibasin horizontal axis rotations to assess the regional evolution of the allochthonous sheet and style and timing of secondary minibasin rotations.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-4620

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