Title of research project: Quantitative modelling of the evolution of salt structures in the Pricaspian basin

Reference number of the grant: KVA-97-1325

Period of performance: 1997 to 2000

Project Coordinator: Prof. C. Talbot (Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden)

Principal Investigator: Dr. A. Ismail-Zadeh

Summary:

The fundamental scientific goal of the project was to better understand the interplay of geodynamic, tectonic, and other geological processes involved in the evolution of the salt structures in the Pricaspian basin. For the first year of the project the following major results were obtained: (i) a large set of seismic, gravity, thermal, and heat flow data was collected to analyse the history of the Pricaspian salt-bearing basin; (ii) new interpretation of the evolution of the Pricaspian salt-bearing basin was suggested on the basis of modern concepts of salt tectonics; (iii) new numerical 2D method was developed to study the dynamic restoration and backstripping of ductile sedimentary layers deformed by salt movement; (iv) new 3D numerical method and parallel algorithm for solving models of salt tectonics and numerical codes for scientific visualization and post-processing were developed; (v) 3D model of salt diapirism was constructed. The results of the project are being published in the international and Russian journals and presented at several international conferences.