PHYSIOGRAPHY AND STRUCTURE OF BACINO BANNOCK (EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN)

Detailed analysis of the morphology of Bacino Bannock, a deep-sea basin filled by a hypersaline brine, shows with unusual detail the effect on the ocean floor topography of the deformation and dissolution of a salt body under tectonic stress. Although salt diapirism occurs in the central part of the investigated area, the major cause of basin formation is dissolution of subsurface evaporites which creates negative relief that exceeds by about one order of magnitude the positive relief. The true shape of the deformed salt deposit is preserved as a result of the absence of a thick post-evaporites sedimentary cover. © 1990 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.