Geological Fine Art

Inspiration for this piece

About 166 million years ago, in the Jurassic time period, a large salt basin covered the modern-day gulf coast. This salt basin developed as Pangea was ripped apart and North America separated from South America. Thick salt was deposited along the gulf coast and into the Gulf of Mexico as it slowly opened. The weight and pressure of the subsequent overlying sediments caused the salt to mobilize, eventually piercing through the top of the younger rock. Many similar structures exist today in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The structure here is known as a salt canopy with two salt pillows on each side of it. The canopy is fed by salt at depth and the growth of the canopy is limited by how much salt exists below. As salt is fed into the canopy, the thickness of the salt at depth diminishes resulting in what was once flat lying strata above to become folded onto the neck of the canopy.