Understanding salt tectonics in Northern Tunisia - Insight from gravity data analysis

Salt tectonics is one of the key fundamental problems of structural analysis in petroliferous basins, and is of broad practice prospecting in petroleum exploration and development stages. Many authors have dealt with salt dome folding and typology, especially after the discovery of ‘diapir plays’ within gas and oil-fields from the Gulf of Mexico and Iran (Talbot and Jaravis 1984; Talbot 1993; Jackson, Vendeville and Schultz- Ela 1994; Jackson 1995; Vendeville 2002; Krzywiec 2004; Talbot and Aftabi 2004). The study on salt tectonics in extensional basins (such as the Gulf of Mexico) has made great achievements (McBride et al., 1998), and salt tectonics research on compressive regime of foreland fold belt has also made progress, such as in the Persian Gulf Basin (Letouzey et al., 1995). The salt beds can change the occurrence of overlying horizons, forming various structural traps (Rowan, 1995). The salt bed itself is the most effective caprocks (Liang-Jie et al 2004). Focuses were performed on salt rising mechanism and geologic parameters effect such as: tectonic regime, basement faulting, initial salt layers thicknesses, overburden thickness, rate of sediment aggradations and salt dissolution.