Salt Tectonics and Pleistocene Stratigraphy on Continental Slope of Northern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Abstract During a sparker and core-drill program conducted by Shell, salt was cored on 10 prominent structures on the continental slope. Broad salt swells and pillows are typical structures in this region. The Sigsbee scarp appears to be the surface expression of a salt front. A zone of active down-to-the-ocean faults follows the Texas shelf edge. They appear to be related to the flow of salt at depth away from the advancing clastic wedge. Upper Cretaceous through Holocene deep-water sedimentary beds were cored on the continental slope. East of Brownsville the salt is overlain by redbeds of unknown age. Core holes at the shelf edge penetrated deltaic and shoreline deposits of the Pleistocene low-sea-level stages. Submarine slides and turbidity currents carried sediments down the slope and filled deep synclinal basins between the salt uplifts.