SUBSIDENCE AND SALT TECTONICS DEAD SEA -IMPLICATIONS TO HYDROCARBON BASIN MODELLING

Susidence rates are among one of the key parameters in calculating hydrocarbon generation,expulsion, and timing of entrapment.The Dead Sea Transform Rift Zone demonstrates extreme subsidence rates ( 5,000 meters/6 million years), exceeding Mesozoic rift zone subsidence rates by a factor of up to five, ( 1000 - 2,000 meters/6 million years) of that in the Western Atlantic, Bahamas, Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico. However comparable rates may exist in the, seismic and gravity geological formations mapped but undrilled portions of each depocenter.Even in rift basins as the La Popa basin in Mexico extreme subsidence lasting 100 million years resulted in over 10000 meters of burial before 36 million years of uplift of 5000 meters.The extreme rates are not comparable to the Dead Sea . Other areas of which pull-apart basin formation and extreme subsidence rates have been documented are along the coast of California in the Ventura and Los Angeles basins.The rapid subsidence fill , high geothermal gradients, and rich marine source rocks have generated significant volumes of hydrocarbons in southern California . The documented Dead Sea subsidence rates create a potential analogue in which generation and expulsion may occur early in a basin's history .The implications are that significant hydrocarbon accumulations may exist in the depocenters which have limited migration pathways.Ultra deep exploration discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico is supportive of limited migration. Additional critical geological relationships are present in the Dead Sea with thousands of meters of alluvial fan material filling up the depressions and numerous salt diapirs.Deep seated faults identified in seismic records by workers are associated with the the salt . Weinberger ,Begin, and others suggest 2400 meters of overburden must exist in the Sedom diapir for significant salt movement.On a worlwide basis the occurrence of salt in rift basins is associated with major hydrocarbon accumulations creating structural and stratigraphic traps.Current new hydrocarbon drilling and completion technologies have enabled us to drill greater than 10000 meters, and going forward ,the ability to further test the earth's sedimentary depocenters.