Salt of the Earth (on salt domes and beds)

Still hoping for more info.So far it really appears that there are many layers of salt, each one showing numerous individual layers, and each super grouping separated by some form of sandstone, all buried under thousands of feet of earth.From the pictures it really appears that there were a whole series of inundations, that then evaporated leaving the salt, later to be covered by earth. It looks like a very long term succession of events.Is that a reasonable assumption?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Okay. Glad I'm catching on.Now so far we have been mostly talking about the great salt deposits that underlie Detroit, but as mentioned the salt actually underlies much of the North East. Around Ithaca New York it looks like the salt bed is first hit at a depth of over 2000 feet and that there are seven separate beds that that vary in thickness up to 325 feet thick.In Southwestern NY the salt bed is found at a depth of over 3000 feet.In Northeastern Ohio the bed is about 150 feet thick and found at a depth of 1900 feet to 2800 feet. sourceIt seems there are several things that are needed to explain this. First, how to evaporate and deposit multiple layers of salt each from 100 to 300 feet thick. Second a model that explains this happening at least seven times, each separated by sufficient time to lay down rock between the beds. Third a model that will explain burying the beds under 1000 to 3000 feet of rock.Does that seem reasonable?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I hope some of our oil folk will step up now as we move south to Texas.In Texas we seem to have a large number of Salt Domes.From my admittedly uneducated perspective, Salt Domes seem to add an additional process.It looks to me that what is seen in salt domes is a process that starts as we saw in the Northern salt beds of salt being laid down by an evaporative process, over laid by rock formations, but then gradually moving, floating upwards.Is that the basic idea?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Okay, but not sure how any of that relates to the question of forming salt domes and specifically, the salt domes of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Okay, very interesting.But I really want to find some information on the mechanics of salt domes.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Sure could use some help on the mechanics of salt domes.So far we have been looking at salt beds, and we have been able to figure out a few things. We can say they were caused by evaporation so the water needs to have been at the surface at the time. We can say that they are the result of multiple events because we can see the evidence of individual layers. We can see that in some of these events, after the bed consisting of many layer was laid down, something happened and the whole structure was covered by rock, and we can see that even this happened many times because we can see multiple salt beds separated by rock formations. Finally, in the case of the North East Salt beds, the whole collection of formations has been buried under thousands of feet of rock.But what about salt domes? What is the mechanism that transforms a salt bed to a salt dome?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Help!

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Immigration has been a problem Since 1607!

Still looking at the models that explain the salt beds and domes we see today.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

So question.In the great salt beds we find thick layers that make up a bed separated by more rock and soil, as many as seven discrete beds each hundreds of feet thick and consisting of hundreds of individual layers all buried under another thousand feet or so of rock and soil.In the mappings of the salt domes do we find anything similar?

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Well, he had to say slightly more than that it seems. He had to say let there be salt and then let there be dirt and then let there be more salt and let there be more rock and then let there be more salt ....

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

And if you will explain what a none-salt detrial sediment is other than being soil maybe we will all learn something?

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Okay, so change it to dirt instead of soil.Expanding on that.What we see in salt beds are layers of salt separated by layers of dirt.To get the salt we needed to have a relatively quiet body of water then over time evaporated leaving just the salt. To get the layer of dirt we need the layer of salt exposed for a period of time so that additional material is transported in.This process, laying down a layer of salt then a layer of other material got repeated again and again.Is that correct? Edited by jar, : ask questionsEdited by jar, : add imageEdited by jar, : fix subtitle

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

If the surface of the salt is not uncovered by water, what is the process that deposits other materials between layers of salt?

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

So again, let me ask some questions.The image I believe you are referring to is from the Detroit Salt mines. That is a bed (actually several beds separated by hundred of vertical feet) that extends under much of America and Canada.Is this an example of a saline giant (or more likely a succession of such critters).

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Okay.So next question is related to the layering.What is the mechanism that explains the layering?

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!