Understanding the kinematics of salt-bearing passive margins: A critical test of competing hypotheses for the origin of the Albian Gap, Santos Basin, offshore Brazil

Thin-skinned gravitational gliding and spreading drive deformation on salt-bearing passive margins. Such margins typically have an updip extensional domain kinematically linked to a downdip contractional domain. However, calculating magnitudes of extension and shortening in salt-bearing margins is difficult because the initial widths of diapirs are uncertain. Extension and shortening may be cryptic, being hidden in widening or shortening of diapirs. This uncertainty can lead to controversy in regional analysis. The Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, contains a prime example of this uncertainty in the form of an enigmatic structure known as the “Albian Gap,” a zone up to 75 km wide within which the Albian section is missing. The Albian Gap has been variably interpreted as the product of post-Albian extensional faulting (the extension model) or as an Albian salt structure evacuated in response to loading by postAlbian sediments (the expulsion model). We evaluate these two models by: (1) structurally restoring a regional seismic-reflection profile across the Albian Gap using both models; (2) quantitatively analyzing the geometry of the Upper Cretaceous rollover overlying the Albian Gap; and (3) synthesizing and critically evaluating arguments previously advanced in support of extension or expulsion. We propose a revised model for the evolution of the Albian Gap that invokes Albian thin-skinned extension and post-Albian salt expulsion. Our approach shows that critical analysis of geological observations from borehole-constrained seismic-reflection data can be used to assess the relative roles of the key processes in the deformation of salt-bearing passive margins.