INVERSION VS. HALOKINESIS: A NEW HYPOTHESIS ABOUT THE LIBYAN OFFSHORE

摘要

By tradition the origin of the structural traps in the Libyan offshore were related to halokinetic movements of the 'Triassic salt' according to the acquired model of some Tunisian onshore structures, but neither the seismic response nor the wells drilled down to reach the Triassic sediments have proved such an origin.In the present study the evolution of the Libyan offshore has been analyzed in a different way, taking into account a complete plate tectonic background. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to set aside, both in spatial and temporal sense, the interference of two regional rifting events (Jeffara Fault System and Sirte System) and the regional Cretaceous compressional pulses structuring the Alps farther north and affecting part of the Northern African margin.Seismic data highlight structural features that can be better related to inversion developed in a fault propagation/fault bend folding way rather than interpreted as pseudo-extensional ones of halokinetic origin. In any case, the boundary conditions for halokinetic phenomena seem never achieved in the area.