ABSTRACT
Experimental modeling is an attempt to examine different hypotheses for the combined effects of the lateral variation in loading, overburden yield strength, density, and viscosity contrasts on initiation of salt movement, salt flow, and diapirism. The present-day salt shapes are often well defined for salt pillows, to within the seismic resolution; well data provide only limited coverage; gravity data suffer from ambiguity problems. Seismic observations of the present-day geometries of salt bodies and of the geometries of surrounding sedimentary horizons in many basins are legion. The numerical values of input parameters needed in the mathematical models can be supported by comparison with physical model studies in which the kinematic and dynamical parameters can be measured roughly. The geometry of the sedimentary beds surrounding a salt structure provides information on the different stages of salt evolution.
