Minor fault geometries and their effect on seismic data in the West African Salt Basin

Seismic data recently acquired by GECO in the offshore West Africa Salt Basin image numerous minor faults in the post-Miocene section. The faults have normal throw and the majority dip shoreward, ie opposite to the present bathymetric slope. This direction is contrary to that which would be expected in a model of gradual downslope creep and their consistency on dip lines has led to the images being dismissed as spurious features introduced during data processing.