An Overview of Some of the Large Scale Mechanisms of Salt Dissolution in Western Canada

Well log and seismic data indicate that the bedded rock salts of the Devonian Prairie Formation were widely distributed and uniformly deposited in the Lloydminster area, Western Canada; however, as a result of extensive leaching, the distribution of these salts is not now what it once was. The Lloydminster area is now bisected by the north-south trending main dissolutional edge of the Prairie salt. Thick salt (up to 150 m) is preserved to the west of this edge; to the east the salt is mostly absent. The paper presents an overview of the envisioned principal mechanisms of salt dissolution. The dissolution of subsurface salts is accompanied by the subsidence of post-salt strata. Analyses of this information can be used to elucidate the timing and large scale mechanisms of salt dissolution