Structural Configuration of Stringers Within a Salt Sheet: Insights into the Diapir Evolution and Emplacement (Les Avellanes Diapir, South-Central Pyrenees)
摘要
Salt diapirism leads to the complex internal deformation of multilayered salt sequences. Competent intrasalt layers undergo intense disruption, décollement, and detachment, coherently reflecting salt flow. Fragments of these layers (stringers) can be dragged to the surface where salt dissolves, accumulating in the dissolution residue (caprock), and potentially preserving the structural configuration given by salt flow. Thus, stringers may act as strain markers to shed light on the diapir evolution. In this contribution, we present the structural configuration of an array of decameter-thick, carbonate stringers, preserved in the softer, evaporitic caprock that forms the surfacing section of the Les Avellanes Diapir (South-Central Pyrenees). This diapir has a complex geometry obtained as Triassic salt arose to the surface assisted by Pyrenean contraction during the late Eocene-early Oligocene and then spread laterally southwards as an extrusive salt sheet. The diapir exposure has been mapped in detail, collecting structural data to build a N-S cross-section that portrays the structural architecture of the stringers. To observe the dynamic behavior of stringers within a vertical and lateral flow, the diapir emplacement has been reproduced using analogue models. The experiments were monitored by a stereoscopic system of two digital cameras, obtaining a set of images that have been processed with DIC techniques (LaVision GmbH) to provide a dynamic analysis of strain quantification. We used the comparison between the modeled theoretical scenario and the field prototype to relate the structural configuration of the stringers with the salt flow during multistage diapirism. From north to south, the stringers present four domains: (1) verticalized parallel to the stem wall; (2) subhorizontal stacked stringers; (3) alternating overturned, subvertical stringers, with north-dipping stringers; and (4) south-vergent imbricated stringers. In the experiments, verticalized stringers in the stem rotated over the feeder as the diffluent flow became lateral. Lateral flow refolded the stringers into isoclinal, recumbent sets verging toward the advancing lobe. These stringers also created temporal embankments concealing the flow and inducing deformation in the brittle caprock. Since the experimental and the field scenario present comparable arrays, the Les Avellanes Diapir evolution is discussed to support its geometry.