Abstract
The doctoral thesis is a collection of four published journal papers, which investigate the influence of the basement inheritance on the pre-salt basin configuration and its effects on the accumulation of the layered evaporite sequence, salt tectonics and post-salt sedimentation in evaporite-influenced rift basins. The thesis has shown that rheological properties, locations, orientation and interaction of inherited structures created zones of weakness that influenced the development of complex pre-salt basin architecture along with subsequent regional extensional phases. Consequently, the syn-rift to post-rift processes within discrete accommodation space of varying depth and depositional paleo-environment, have influenced the thickness and facies (mobile to non-mobile) of the layered evaporite sequence. The study highlights that the regional extension and prograding sediment influx direction, the sediment transport velocity and the sediment thickness influenced the dynamics of the early to late passive diapirism, the salt expulsion and the depletion, together with the layered evaporite thickness and facies that were affected by the pre-salt rift architecture. The salt structures and evaporite-cored domes were rejuvenated due to far-field contractional stresses and eventually uplift eroded the successions over their crests.
List of papers
Paper 1: Hassaan, M. Faleide, J. I., Gabrielsen, R. H., Tsikalas, T. (2020). Carboniferous graben structures, evaporite accumulations and tectonic inversion in the southeastern Norwegian Barents Sea. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 112, 104038. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.104038. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.104038 |
Paper 2: Hassaan, M., Faleide, J. I., Gabrielsen, R. H., Tsikalas, T. (2021a). Architecture of the evaporite accumulation and salt structures dynamics in Tiddlybanken Basin, southeastern Norwegian Barents Sea. Basin Research 33 (1): 91-117. DOI: 10.1111/bre.12456. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12456 |
Paper 3: Hassaan, M., Faleide, J. I., Gabrielsen, R. H., Tsikalas, T. (2021b). Effects of basement structures and Carboniferous basin configuration on evaporite distribution and the development of salt structures in Nordkapp Basin, Barents Sea–Part I. Basin Research. DOI: 10.1111/bre.12565. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12565 |
Paper 4: Hassaan, M., Faleide, J. I., Gabrielsen, R. H., Tsikalas, T., Grimstad, S. (2021c). Interplay between base-salt relief, progradational sediment loading and salt tectonics in the Nordkapp Basin, Barents Sea – Part II. Basin Research. DOI: 10.1111/bre.12602. (Manuscript). The manuscript is included in the thesis. The published article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12602 |