Salt Range: Difference between revisions

The Salt Range is the youngest and the most southern part of the western Himalayan Ranges in Pakistan. The range is unlike other Himalaya type thrusting due to the mechanical strength of the Eocambrian salt near the base of the sedimentary strata overlying Indian basement rock.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jaumé |first=Steven C. |last2=Lillie |first2=Robert J. |date=February 1988-02 |title=Mechanics of the Salt Range‐Potwar Plateau, Pakistan: A fold‐and‐thrust belt underlain by evaporites |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/TC007i001p00057 |journal=Tectonics |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=57–71 |doi=10.1029/TC007i001p00057 |issn=0278-7407}}</ref>. The mechanical difference between the salt and other sedimentary rock that have collided elsewhere in the greater Himalaya mountain range is that salt acts like a lubricant, not allowing friction between thrust sheets to build up higher topography. Instead, the thrust sheets slide easy on the salt and do not build high topographic relief. This is also why the Salt Range is further south and appears separated from the rest of the greater Himalaya thrust sheets.

The Eocambrian salt in the Salt Range has been moved on the base of thrust sheets and has high flow characteristics. The salt flowed until it hit an obstruction in the basement rock. Seismic data of the area has been interpreted to suggest that normal faults in the basement rock acted as an obstruction for the salt to pile up against, building higher and higher topography until the salt overcame the obstruction at depth .<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=Dan M. |last2=Lillie |first2=Robert J. |last3=Yeats |first3=Robert S. |last4=Johnson |first4=Gary D. |last5=Yousuf |first5=Mohammad |last6=Zamin |first6=Agha Sher Hamid |date=1988 |title=Development of the Himalayan frontal thrust zone: Salt Range, Pakistan |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article/16/1/3-7/204533 |journal=Geology |language=en |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=3 |doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1988)016<0003:DOTHFT>2.3.CO;2 |issn=0091-7613}}</ref>. The salt then flowed and bulged through the overlying strata, intruding Cambrian aged salt on top of Cenozoic strata .<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grelaud |first=Sylvain |last2=Sassi |first2=William |last3=de Lamotte |first3=Dominique Frizon |last4=Jaswal |first4=Tariq |last5=Roure |first5=François |date=2002-11-01 |title=Kinematics of eastern Salt Range and South Potwar Basin (Pakistan): a new scenario |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264817202001216 |journal=Marine and Petroleum Geology |volume=19 |issue=9 |pages=1127–1139 |doi=10.1016/S0264-8172(02)00121-6 |issn=0264-8172}}</ref>.