Radial gliding evinced by subsalt relief and salt-related structures: the example of the Gulf of Lions, Western Mediterranean

The young Messinian salt offshore the Gulf of Lions is a shallow décollement layer that permits direct correlation of gravity-driven structures with those predicted by analogue models. Sub-salt relief is cleary depicted by high resolution seismic data. Subsalt relief and salt isopach maps indicate the occurrence of radial gliding at the scale of the entire Gulf of Lions. This pattern of gravity gliding is also indicated by the occurrence of salt-related structures of smaller scale (families of transverse faults). Transverse faults strike parallel to the regional dip direction, indicating strike-parallel extension. As well as that, our results also permit correlation between categories of residual subsalt relief (local irregularities) and rooting of faults along with, depending on their directions, there has been either strike-slip mouvement or weld-parallel slip.