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Larry Smith's avatar

Can you rule out salt tectonics (halokinesis) based on the stratigraphy?

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Richard I Gibson's avatar

Great question - you probably cannot rule that out without knowing more about the stratigraphy and the rocks on the ground. But without knowing that, I'd think the features were not salt related because of the scale - and I apologize for not including one on the NASA image. The large feature at left center is 20-25 km wide, not impossible for salt tectonics but unusual (compare the 7-10 km domes in southern Iran), and I guess my first thought about the oval shapes would not have been salt tectonism either (not impossible, but less likely).

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Larry Smith's avatar

And I should have added, halokinesis could contribute to, but not be responsible for, the deformation. All I remember is that evaporites are not uncommon but I don’t know the stratigraphy of Algeria.

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Richard I Gibson's avatar

I think the Triassic-Jurassic evaporite basin was in northern-central Algeria, 1.5 km thick or so, and might have roles in some of the giant gas fields there. Younger than the Carboniferous rocks in this image, but one can't know that from the image.

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