ABSTRACT
This chapter presents methods of providing simple estimates of parameters associated with dynamical, thermal, and hydrocarbon evolution from seismic and downhole data. It explores quantitative procedures for constructing self-consistent evolution of salt and sediment situations which honor present-day observations, and which also provide thermal and stress-strain evolution patterns. The chapter explains applications of the self-consistent procedure to several case histories to illustrate the conditions and control criteria that are either determinable or invokable from perceptions of the geological evolution of a basin. The factor which make salt such a dominating influence on all aspects of sedimentary basin evolution are effectively constant salt density which just happens to be between sediment depositional values and full-compaction values, thereby giving rise to buoyancy of salt. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
