Subsalt plays II: subsalt vs.

presalt
Part I of this pair of PGSG pages explained
why subsalt plays have become attractive in
recent years. This page refines what we mean
by subsalt in its general sense by distinguishing

Railsback's Petroleum Geoscience and Subsurface Geology

between presalt and subsalt in a more

specific or strict sense. The distinction is
that, as salt deforms, older sediments
below the original position of the salt are

Suprasalt zone
of traditional petroleum exploration

Subsalt zone (in strict sense of subsalt)

(sediments that are younger than salt
and underlie allochthonous salt)

Boundaries of salt at deposition

(prior to movement of salt)
Boundaries of salt as shown in Part I
(after some movement of salt)
Salt after
further movement
Under the weight
of overlying sediments,
ductile salt is squeezed upward
into diapirs and generally basinward
in sheets. Most salt will eventually
reside in sheets between sediments
much higher than the salt's original
stratigraphic position and much younger
than the salt's geologic age (for example,
salt of Triassic age in sheets amidst Cenozoic sediments in the Gulf of Mexico).

called presalt, whereas younger sediments

over which salt has been squeezed are more
narrowly called subsalt.

Salt

Salt sheet

Salt

Presalt zone (sediments that are older than salt

and underlie autochthonous salt)
Note that movement of salt may leave presalt
zone with no salt over it, so that presalt is no
longer subsalt in the general sense of that word.

Sources include Hudec and Jackson (2006, Advance of allochthonous salt sheets in passive margins and orogens: AAPG Bulletin 90: 15351564) and
Moore (2010, Pioneering the Global Subsalt/Presalt Play: The World Beyond Mahogany Field, presented at AAPG, NOGS, and OGS meetings).

LBR PGSGSubsaltPlaysII01.odg 6/2013