Salt tectonics offshore Morocco - New insights from numerical modelling and 2D seismic interpretation

Salt tectonics is known to be an important control on the structural configuration of many continental margins. It is a critical mechanism that influences syn-deformational sedimentation and depositional style and has a significant impact on potential reservoir distribution, fluid migration pathways and trap formation. This study adopts an integrated seismic stratigraphic interpretation and forward modelling approach, using a Discrete-Element Technique, to study salt-related deformation with the aim of characterizing and modelling salt tectonics and associated sedimentation on the Offshore Agadir Basin of Morocco, an area of recent renewed exploration interest. This margin is highly structured following remobilisation of underlying Triassic syn-rift salt, and interpretation of a regional 2D seismic grid has allowed the identification of at least three different structural styles: 1) a southern area with upright tear-drop diapirs and adjacent minibasins, 2) a central area dominated by large allochthonous salt tongues and sheets, and 3) a northern section with well-defined extensional, transitional and contractional domains of salt tectonics due to the lower volume of salt that is affected by paleovolcanoes. The integration of seismic interpretation with numerical modelling affords a better understanding of the margin evolution, especially of how the complex allochthonous salt features developed and their effects to sedimentation patterns.