Salt tectonics as a self-organizing process: A reaction, transport, and mechanics model

Salt tectonics is placed within the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems. Features such as waves, diapirs, and tears are viewed as natural consequenc es of the symmetry breaking instabilities and related self-organized dynami cs of the deforming salt body coupled to the reaction, transport, and mecha nics of the surrounding sediments. The fundamental nonlinearities are in th e surrounding-rock and salt rheology. Our findings are based on a coupled R TM model simulated using finite element techniques. The centerpiece of the rheology of both rocks and salt is a nonlinear incremental stress formulati on that integrates poroelasticity, continuous irreversible mechanical defor mation (with yield behavior), pressure solution, and fracturing. In contras t to previously presented studies, in our approach the descriptive variable s of all solid and fluid phases (stress, velocity, concentrations, etc.) an d porous media (texture, i.e., volume fractions, composition, etc.) are sol ved from RTM equations accounting for interactions and interdependencies be tween them. The role of the coupling between the spatial distribution of se diment input rate and diapir growth and stalling is examined as is the crea tion of an array of salt tectonic minibasins.