Badenian Evaporite Evolution and Methane Entrapment in the Transylvanian Basin

BADENIAN EVAPORITE EVOLUTION AND METHANE ENTRAPMENT IN THE TRANSYLVANIAN BASIN Constantin Pene1, Octavian Coltoi2, Stefan Grigorescu2 1University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, 6 Traian Vuia Str., Bucharest, Romania 2Geological Institute of Romania, 1 Caransebes Str., 70124-RO, Bucharest, Romania Summary Transylvanian Basin is the main producer of methane in Romania. The correlation of data shows that at least during of the Lower to Middle Badenian in Transylvanian Basin and Carpathian Foredeep was a unique sedimentary basin, isolated from Central Parathetys and Mediterranean. The Badenian salt in the Transylvanian Basin has almost continuously development in average thickness of 400m. The top of the salt layer is highly undulating, while the base is nearly horizontal. The salt shapes has been different: in the central part there are pillows, layers and piercements; in east and west, salt flowing created the salt diapirs and salt wall. The salt movement created large dome-shape of the overlying deposits that represent excellent traps for the biogenic methane entrapment. The aim of this paper is to investigate the Badenian evaporites evolution we used a model of an elastic plate overlying a viscous fluid to understand the causes that created zones with different intensity of the diapirism.