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Origin of coal basins by salt solution

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Abstract

WILLISTON Basin of North America, one of the world's largest brown coal basins with diameter 550 km, is interpreted as an effect of regional solution of up to 150 m thickness of Devonian salt. The Late Cretaceous–Tertiary salt removal from the buried Elk Point Evaporite Basin (Middle Devonian) has resulted in sufficient collapse subsidence to be structurally reflected in the 2,000–3,000 m of overlying Palaeozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphic column. The Palaeocene coalfields are topset to Late Cretaceous delta lobes developed within salt solution troughs. This syndepositional mechanism for coal basin formation has not previously been recognised.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    PAUL L. BROUGHTON

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  1. PAUL L. BROUGHTON
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BROUGHTON, P. Origin of coal basins by salt solution. Nature 270, 420–423 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270420a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/270420a0

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