SempereCotrina 2018 INGEPET Final Lite

Sempere, T.P.A., & Cotrina, J. 2018. An overlooked giant salt basin in Peru. INGEPET, 9th, Lima, paper GEO-EX-TS-10-N, 18 p.
AN OVERLOOKED GIANT SALT BASIN IN PERU
Thierry P.A. Sempere (ANDES C&P, Lima, Peru; thierrysempere@icloud.com) &

Jimmy Cotrina (PERUPETRO S.A., San Borja, Lima, Peru; jimmycotrina22@gmail.com)
Abstract
The Greater Peruvian Oriente Basin (GPOB) includes a western belt characterized by abundant
salt and other evaporites. Paradoxically, this large salt-rich area has been interpreted as having
been structured by thrust tectonics only, and explored from this point of view. Our re-evaluation
of the stratigraphy and seismic evidence however leads to the conclusion that this region of the
GPOB has undergone classical features of salt tectonics, locally in spectacular ways, most of
which developed in the Jurassic unrelated to any compressional setting.
Large salt domes crop out east of the Eastern Cordillera, extending from the border with
Ecuador to at least the 12°S latitude, broadly covering the Santiago, western Marañón,
Huallaga, Pachitea, and Ene sub-basins, and adjacent areas to the west. In the Andean
highlands, one salt dome occurs in central Peru, and more salt occurs southeastwards down to
the Cusco region. Data are consistent with this salt having been initially deposited in the Late
Norian as a stratigraphic unit, here defined as the Pareni Salt/Formation, originally overlying the
typical Mitu Group (volcanic rocks and continental red beds) and underlying the Pucará Group
(marine carbonates). The Mitu–Pareni–Pucará succession records the development of a rift
system, whose axis probably ran along the present-day Eastern Cordillera; the accumulation of
large quantities of salt in rift settings is classical.
Because the overlying Pucará Group (latest Triassic–Liassic) mainly consists of >1 km-thick
carbonates, it is likely that the Pareni Salt underwent halokinesis as early as the late Liassic.
The Pucará is overlain by, and grades eastwards into, the Sarayaquillo Formation, which mostly
consists of terrestrial red beds. This unit can be >1.5 km-thick but displays large thickness
variations and growth strata, reflecting differential subsidence produced by coeval halokinesis.
A variety of seismic geometries typical of salt tectonics are observed, and some also involve
Cretaceous and younger units. The western GPOB thus underwent significant halokinesis in the
Jurassic, that has lingered on until now.
Accumulation of such large amounts of salt over such an extended region is obviously of high
interest for exploration, favouring salt plays. However, this salt-tectonics perspective has been
largely ignored due to the dominance of the fold-thrust-belt paradigm, which has constantly
misinterpreted structures created in fact by salt tectonics. We suggest that many traditional thin-
skinned interpretations are biased, model-driven, misleading, and in some cases groundless.
Our findings open significant avenues for further, and successful, exploration.
“The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans
was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers: A history of man's search to know his world and himself,
Random House, 1983, p. 86.
Introduction
Until today, hydrocarbon exploration in Peru east of the Andes has been conducted nearly
exclusively in a thrust-tectonic perspective. However, exploration has not been significantly
successful in the northern and central regions of Amazonian Peru, in contrast with the southern
region, where the gas-rich Camisea and Candamo districts are located.
In this paper we refer to the entire area east of the Andes as the ‘Greater Peruvian Oriente
Basin’ (GPOB); the word ‘Peruvian’ is needed because other Andean countries also call their
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eastern region ‘Oriente’; the word ‘Greater’ (with a meaning similar to the one it has in ‘Greater
London’) is used in order to emphasize that all named (sub-)basins located in Amazonian Peru
in fact represent portions of a much larger basin, here referred to as the GPOB. This Greater
Peruvian Oriente Basin thus includes, from north to south and west to east, the Santiago,
Marañón, Huallaga, Pachitea, Ucayali, Ene, and Madre de Dios (sub-)basins, which share much
of their stratigraphies, and whose respective evolutions were largely connected.
Figure 1. Features of interest for the salt issue in Peru. Turquoise spheres show salt diapirs located on INGEMMET
geological maps and other complementary information (the spheres are blurry where location is approximate);
turquoise circles are locations where salt is also documented as rock salt or brines. At the current stage of our
research, no reliable western boundary can be assigned to the initial area of salt deposition. Observations in coastal
northern Peru at ~6.5°S indirectly suggest that salt was also deposited there in the Late Triassic. Lines “out” are
drawn after Fernández et al. (2002) in upper half of map, and inferred from diverse geological data in lower half (thin
lines indicate low reliability).
Thinking out of the box, we observe that the central and northern regions of this GPOB include
a western belt characterized by abundant salt and other evaporites. Salt in this >1000 km-long
western portion of northern and central Amazonian Peru is documented both by numerous
outcropping diapirs and in seismic information (Fig. 1). We therefore strongly believe that
exploration should seriously consider salt plays in this huge (~150,000 km2) region. We suggest
that resorting only to thrust plays in this large portion of the GPOB might miss, and have
missed, potential discoveries related to salt tectonics sensu stricto.
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In this short preliminary paper, we evidence that a considerable volume of salt (>100,000 km3
as a minimum) was initially deposited in the Late Triassic, and that halokinesis vigorously
developed during the Jurassic, lingering on through later times. We document a variety of
typical salt-tectonic features generated by halokinesis, which have generally been
misinterpreted as resulting from thrust tectonics (i.e., in conformity with the mainstream
compressional paradigm).
Geological evolution
The limited size and scope of this paper do not allow a detailed description of the Phanerozoic
evolution of the basin architecture and infill. A glimpse of this evolution can however be grasped
by examining the regional transect illustrated in Figure 2. Although the rich stratigraphy of
central and northern Peru is apparently complex, this record can be divided into 4 distinct
epochs and briefly interpreted as follows:
1. Epoch 1: The Early and Middle Paleozoic units are characterized by thick and monotonous,
commonly organic-rich, siliciclastic strata that were deposited in dominantly shallow-marine to
marine shelf environments, while climate was cool to cold. It is unclear whether the margin was
active or passive at that time (ongoing research).
2. Epoch 2 began around ~350 Ma when the subduction arc initiated its major and protracted
magmatic growth along the present-day Eastern Cordillera. This growth resulted in a major
magmatic flare-up: the volcanic cordillera shed abundant pyroclastic products and volcaniclastic
detritus into the coeval backarc basin, which remained marine. In the Pennsylvanian the
regional climate rapidly evolved from cool to warm and dry, and carbonates started to be
deposited at that time. During the Permian aftermath of the Carboniferous arc orogeny, the
backarc recorded a number of eustatic and volcanic events. Extension-related magmatism and
metamorphism spread in the Late Permian and was particularly active in specific areas from
~270 to ~245 Ma, and locally until ~220 Ma. This extensional evolution continued into Epoch 3,
but with a considerable increase in intensity.
3. Epoch 3 began at 240 Ma (late Middle Triassic) with the widespread development of major
tectonic extension. Extensional deformation was initially dramatic (Mitu Group) and continued
throughout the Jurassic. This stretching of the Andean margin was directly related to Pangaea
break-up. As a consequence, the entire Andean geosystem (the arc and flanking basins, i.e. the
forearc and backarc basins) shifted to the west during this time interval. This process of
lithospheric thinning and westward shifting ended ~130 Ma ago, at the time when the breakup
between South America and Africa was initiated. Of particular relevance in this paper, the areas
downwarped in the Late Triassic were invaded by seawater, and several 100s of m of salt were
deposited (see below for details), which were overlain by commonly >1 km-thick marine
carbonates. Halokinesis developed as soon as the late Early Jurassic, and salt tectonics has
been active throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous, and at least locally until now. The climate
turned rainy during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
4. Epoch 4 started around ~130 Ma when the arc and flanking basins began to migrate toward
the continent. This epoch was characterized by the growth of the magmatic arc, building the
Andean backbone, and can be considered to have lasted until now (although this is an
oversimplification, it bears no significant hindrance for exploration at this scale). Related
phenomena include a dominantly eastward arc migration, eastward fault propagation, and,
especially along the backbone of the Andes, major crustal thickening during the last ~10 Ma.
The growth and eastward migration of the arc resulted in the eastward migration of the backarc
basin, which was increasingly filled by west-derived detritus and turned dominantly terrestrial in
the latest Cretaceous (Fig. 2). The climate was dry in the mid-Cretaceous, but turned
dominantly rainier afterwards.
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Figure 2. Generalized and synthetic stratigraphic transect through central to northern Peru (~8–11ºS). Intrusions are
located only according to their age (with no relation to their country rocks). Arrows indicate periods of marked tectonic
extension. It appears that the migration of the arc, and therefore of the associated forearc and backarc basins, was
crucial in the evolution of the Andean margin, and largely explains the observed stratigraphic successions and facies
distributions. UBOG = unconformity at the base of the Oriente Group.
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Stratigraphic definition and depositional age of the main salt unit

Rock salt has been known to occur in many areas of Peru and used for millenia by native
people (e.g., Renard-Casevitz, 1992, 1993, 2002). Salt domes and other occurrences have
been described in the scientific literature since early in the 20th century (Pflucker, 1919;
Hoempler, 1953; Benavides, 1962/1968). In particular, Benavides (1962/1968, p. 259) observed
and deduced the following:
“The Mitu Group crops out […] along the deep gorge of the Marañón River downstream from the
Pongo de Rentema. In this area the group is composed of dark-red to maroon clastic sedimentary
rocks, but gypsum beds and lenses having maximum thicknesses of 8 m are also present. In the
valley of the Marañón River at a site facing the mouth of the Amujao tributary, salt beds having
thicknesses great enough to permit mining operations are found. [… I]t has been determined that the
salt is within the Mitu Group; this is the only known occurrence of salt that is unquestionably within the
Mitu Group. [… T]he Mitu Group is a most likely source of the salt and gypsum found in some of the
piercement structures of eastern Peru.” [Italics ours.]
Although Benavides stated in 1962/1968 that the salt-rich outcrop facing the mouth of the
Amujao river in the Marañón valley was “the only known occurrence of salt that is
unquestionably within the Mitu Group”, other occurrences of salt within the same unit were later
described by Marocco (1975) and Cárdenas et al. (1997) in the Cordillera Oriental at ~13.5ºS,
about 120-130 km west of the Cusco city. Marocco’s (1975) description was unambiguous :
"[…] en la confluencia de los ríos Pachachaca y Apurímac, queda la mina de sal de Carquiqui, donde
se explota una capa de sal de 5 m de potencia. Esta sal es parte de un complejo evaporítico
intercalado dentro del Grupo Mitu."
Along the ~13.75ºS latitude, Marocco (1975) recognized that “evaporites are abundant in the
Mitu and Pucará groups, as well as in the Capas Rojas” (the latter being of Late Cretaceous–
Paleocene age). He mapped as Pucará Group a succession dominated by carbonates, in which
the proportion of evaporites increases eastwards, and observed that the Pucará apparently
pinches out about the ~72.45ºW longitude. West of 73.0ºW the Pucará mainly consists of
limestones, with some evaporite intercalations, whereas from ~72.9ºW eastwards the
evaporites are more and more abundant, locally reaching a thickness of several hundreds of
meters (as at Curahuasi and Mollepata). These evaporites appear to be almost always
associated to, or intercalated with, very bituminous dolomitic limestones and continental red
beds ranging from mudstones to conglomerates (these facies are suggestive of the lowermost
Pucará and upper Mitu, respectively). These evaporites mainly consist of gypsum and anhydrite
but also include common salt, and are often mined (as at Mollepata, actually 13.52ºS/72.54ºW).
Marocco (1975) also described and mapped evaporites in the lowermost Pucará Group, at
~13.5ºS about 50-60 km southeast of the Ayacucho city. Indeed, at a number of localities in the
Cordillera Oriental, evaporites commonly occur within the lowermost Pucará Group, or just
below it, as at ~11.35ºS in the gypsum quarry located ~16 km WNW of the city of Tarma, and at
Colquipucra/Colquipucro (~10.45ºS; Harrison & Wilson, 1960). More to the north, at ~6.0ºS,
Benavides (1962/1968; p. 261-262) also confirmed this point and suggested that salt is also
present:
“In the Utcubamba valley of northern Peru at a site about 3 km downstream from Ingenio, massive
dolomites and limestones of Triassic age [= the Pucará Group] rest upon gypsum beds […]. At the
same site a brine spring, the waters of which are evaporated to obtain domestic salt, issues on the
side of the road.”
Benavides (1962/1968; p. 261) also observed that the Pucará Group is gradationally underlain
by red beds, which therefore must also be of Late Triassic age:
“[…T]he base of the Triassic-Jurassic limestone sequence has been observed to be transitional to an
underlying red bed sequence at one of the most eastern localities, where the contact is exposed. This
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site is in the valley of a small tributary of Quebrada Chipaota […] within the region of the Middle
Huallaga salt diapirs. The limestones in the lower […] Pucará Group are Late Triassic in age; therefore
the underlying red beds to which they are transitional” [should logically be Triassic].
Benavides (1962/1968) thus identified that the main salt in northern and central Peru was
initially deposited, along with other evaporites, fine-grained red beds, and some carbonates,
over a stratigraphic interval that spans, according to the described facies, the uppermost Mitu
Group (now known to be of Triassic age; e.g., Spikings et al., 2016) and the lowermost Pucará
Group (of latest Triassic–Liassic age; Ritterbusch et al., 2015), and his observations and
deductions were matched by Marocco’s (1975) further south around ~13.75ºS. Although this
stratigraphic position for the original sedimentary accumulation of this salt was later challenged
(Rodríguez & Chalco, 1975; Rodríguez, 1979; Calderón et al., 2017), it was accepted by
Alemán & Marksteiner (1993) and, in part, by Fernández et al. (2002).
Our own study fully confirms Benavides’s (1962/1968) assignment of the initial salt unit (see
below) to a stratigraphic interval located between the typical facies of the Mitu and Pucará
groups. Given the chronological constraints currently available for these underlying and
overlying units (Reitsma, 2012; Ritterbusch et al., 2015; Spikings et al., 2016), it appears that
the main salt unit was deposited in the Late Triassic, and more precisely between ~215 and
~210 Ma (early Late Norian).
As this salt unit has remained unnamed in the stratigraphy of Peru until now, we propose to
name it Pareni Formation (or Pareni Salt) because Pareni is the old vernacular name of the
Cerro de la Sal (“Hill of the Salt”), located ~3 km southwest of Villarrica, where large amounts of
rock salt crop out: “The Cerro de la Sal is the crystallized body of a civilizing ancestress from
heroic times and bears her name: Pareni” (Renard-Casevitz, 1992); “[t]he Cerro de la Sal is a
group of rock-salt mines on a hillside, in which the civilizing goddess Pareni transformed her
body after travelling across the Arawak lands” (Renard-Casevitz, 1993). This name was initially
proposed by Sempere (2016) in an unpublished report, and is also used for the same unit by
Iribarne et al. (2018) and Callot et al. (2018).
The Late Triassic age demonstrated for the Pareni Salt matches well the tectonic context that
was active at that time in Peru, namely rifting (e.g., Sempere et al., 2002), as it is now well
known that very large amounts of salt were deposited in rift settings throughout the world at
geological times when the local climate was arid (Warren, 2006, 2010; Jackson & Hudec, 2017).
Furthermore, it has been recently recognized that a relatively high number of large salt deposits
accumulated in the Late Triassic worldwide (Jackson & Hudec, 2017).
In southern Bolivia, rock salt occurs and is mined in the upper Ipaguazú Formation in the Entre
Ríos region of the Tarija department. This unit is of Middle to Late Triassic age (Sempere et al.,
1992; Bertrand et al., 2014), and, given their position in the succession, the salt and other
evaporites are apparently of Late Triassic age, as in Peru. The Ipaguazú Formation also
accumulated in a rift setting (Sempere et al., 2002, 2003, 2004).
Salt deposited in rift contexts is commonly well over 1 km-thick, and a maximum thickness of
4 km is recorded in the Gulf of Mexico (a Jurassic rift). The 10 largest salt deposits currently
known in the world are estimated to range between 200,000 and 1,800,000 km3 and most of
them correspond to rift settings (Warren, 2006; Jackson & Hudec, 2017). At the time being we
tentatively estimate the thickness and total volume of the Pareni Salt to have been initially at
least several 100s of m on average, and thus >100,000 km3 at the very least, respectively.
The initial existence of thick salt between the Mitu and Pucará groups implied a significant
rheological discontinuity, which is expected to have generated a major detachment level during
later deformations. This is indeed observed in Andean central Peru: Mégard (1978) described
one key outcrop near Matasenca (Fig. 3), and other areas presenting a detachment at the same
stratigraphic level are being currently studied (e.g., Berrospi et al., 2018).
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Figure 3. The marked structural

disharmony observed between the
Mitu and Pucará groups near
Matasenca, as hand-drawn by Mégard
(1978; his Figure 84), is likely to have
resulted from tectonic motion on the
detachment level provided by the
Pareni Salt. The salt was later
withdrawn and/or dissolved, resulting
in a weld.
Other structural effects generated by
the existence of a detachment level
between the Mitu and Pucará groups
(the initial stratigraphic position of the
Pareni Salt) are expected to occur in
the Andean and sub-Andean domains,
and are indeed observed in an
increasing number of localities.

Other salt units however occur in Peru. In northern Peru (Yurumarca or Yuraccmarca,
~6.01ºS/~77.81ºW), Sánchez (1995) reported salt associated to a diapiric structure but
apparently interbedded with red beds of the Jurassic Sarayaquillo Formation; if this stratigraphic
position is confirmed, and a diapiric effect is discarded, then this salt may have been
evaporated from brines derived from the partial dissolution of emerging Jurassic diapirs formed
by halokinesis of the Pareni Salt (see below), in a coeval sabkha-lake environment.
Salt of apparent Late Cretaceous to Paleocene age occurs in southern Peru and western
Bolivia, and has generated diapirs at least in the Altiplano. It is also possible that some salt was
deposited in the Early Cretaceous of the Cusco-Puno region. However, Cretaceous salt is
known to occur only in southern regions and will not be discussed here.
Assignments of the main salt unit of northern and central Peru to the Permian (e.g., Calderón et
al., 2017) are in fact unsubstantiated. Rodríguez and Chalco (1975) mentioned unpublished
34 34
δ S values suggesting a Permian age for associated sulfates in a diapir near Tarapoto, but δ S
values are far from providing a reliable method to date evaporites. Correlations with Permian
strata of the Camisea area, as done by Calderón et al. (2017), are groundless and untenable,
because salt has not been reported there and occurrences of other evaporites are only quite
minor in the area (Seminario et al., 2005).
Analysis of seismic information

Figures 4 to 7 provide didactic cases of observations and deductions based on the available
seismic information. Given that the interest for salt plays is expected to grow in Peru, the
seismic lines displayed here are not referenced on purpose.
Our reconstruction of the geological evolution in central and northern Peru (see above) is
matched by the succession and geometries visible in seismic sections. Large-scale stratigraphic
units are therefore rather easy to identify, on the basis of the following points when analysing
the sections downwards.
The stratigraphic pile representing Epoch 4 appears to be uninterrupted, the Cenozoic strata
conformably continuing the Cretaceous succession. In contrast, the unconformity at the base of
the Oriente Group (UBOG) is generally well marked and in many places overlies the
Sarayaquillo or older units with an angularity. This unconformity also commonly crops out in the
Andean domain.
7
8
Figure 4. Portion of a seismic section illustrating typical geometries that allow identification of stratigraphic units. Numbers flanking coloured vertical lines identify stratigraphic epochs 1 through 4 (see
main text and below). Thin black lines materialize the lower portions of obvious normal faults, that affect all Paleozoic reflectors and are interpreted to have formed during the extremely extensional Mitu
syn-rift period. These faults are post-dated by a unit showing lenticular shapes, and therefore identified as the Pareni Salt (given that redistribution of salt by halokinesis classically generates such
shapes). Immediately above the Pareni Salt (T0 in Trusheim’s [1960] model), the Pucará Group forms a unit of rather regular thickness (T1 in Trusheim’s [1960] model), that presents a somewhat
“wavy” aspect controlled by the shape of the underlying salt bodies. Note the thickness variations of the Sarayaquillo Formation (T2+T3 in Trusheim’s [1960] model) and of the Pareni Salt, which
constrast with the fair thickness regularity of the Pucará Group and of the Mississippian (“Ambo”) through mid-Triassic stratigraphic set. The Pennsylvanian through mid-Triassic units cannot be reliably
recognized for the time being. The red scale is 2 km. Blue S = Pareni Salt; w = salt weld (primary in this case); UBOG = unconformity at the base of the Oriente Group; K = Cretaceous; Cz = Cenozoic.

9
Figure 5. Portion of a seismic section, located near that displayed in Figure 4, illustrating geometries that likewise allow identification of stratigraphic units, as well as elements of salt tectonics, including
the pedestal of a largely dissolved diapir displaying a symmetrical internal structure.
Units identified in Figure 4 are easily recognizable in this nearby seismic section. Two units showing markedly irregular shapes are the Pareni Salt and the overlying Pucará Group (compare with Figure
4). Note the ‘broken’ aspect of the Pucará Group in the area of the diapir pedestal, which is interpreted to have resulted from the disruption caused by the intrusion and ascent of the underlying salt.
Note also the internal stratigraphic structure and thickness variations of the Sarayaquillo Formation in the left half of section. In contrast, the pre-salt Mississippian (“Ambo”) through mid-Triassic
stratigraphic set is fairly regular (these units cannot be individually recognized for the time being).
Poor preservation of the entire diapir shape, and absence of a clear diapir shape above the identified pedestal indicate that it was largely dissolved at some later time, as evidenced by the inclined
secondary weld shown in the image.
The red scale is 2 km. Blue S = Pareni Salt; UBOG = unconformity at the base of the Oriente Group; K = Cretaceous; Cz = Cenozoic. “Pull-up”: apparent image of an antiform or structural high resulting
from imperfect velocity model beneath an area where salt is present; salt having a high seismic velocity, two-way traveltimes are somewhat ‘shortened’ relatively to model when salt is crossed by
seismic waves, making that sedimentary bodies beneath the salt may appear closer to the surface than they really are.
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Figure 6. Seismic section illustrating typical stratigraphic geometries related to the salt issue. The red scale is 1.5 km. The inclined thin black lines in the lower part of the section prolongate obvious
normal faults that affect all Paleozoic reflectors; these faults are interpreted to have formed during the markedly extensional Mitu syn-rift period; note that these faults are post-dated partly by the Pareni
salt and more completely by the Pucará carbonates.
Blue ‘s’ = Pareni Salt; UBOG = unconformity at the base of the Oriente Group; K = Cretaceous. The Pennsylvanian through mid-Triassic units cannot be reliably recognized in detail at this time.
The left part of section exh bits a clear angular unconformity between the Sarayaquillo Formation and the overlying Oriente Group (K), as well as an inverted Sarayaquillo depocenter that is reminiscent of
the ‘turtle’ structures typical of some cases of salt tectonics. Note also the fair regularity of the Mississippian (“Ambo”) through mid-Triassic pre-rift units prior to normal faulting.
Epoch 3 strata commonly display markedly more complex geometries, that may be irregular or
‘wavy’ depending on the unit(s) involved. This stratigraphic set groups four units, namely the
Mitu Group (late Middle Triassic to early Late Triassic), the Pareni Salt (early Late Norian), the
Pucará Group (latest Norian to Liassic), and the Sarayaquillo Formation (¿late Liassic? to
¿Late? Jurassic). The Pareni Salt is key to identification of these units in seismic sections
because it has been affected by halokinesis nearly everywhere, which generated irregular
shapes that are easily recognizable.
b
Figure 7. Typical synforms and antiforms generated in NW Germany (a) and the western GPOB (b) by salt tectonics
only. No tectonic compression was involved in both cases because (a) Northwest Germany is a region that has not
been affected by significant compression since the Carboniferous, and (b) the Peruvian structures formed during the
Jurassic, an epoch characterized by widespread extension (Sempere et al., 2002) and during which no compression
has been documented so far.
The seismic section in portion a of the figure was explained by Mohr et al. (2005). In this region the Zechstein salt is
of Late Permian age. The “wavy” aspect created by the clear antiforms and synforms is restricted to strata of Middle
Triassic to mid-Jurassic age, and post-dated by strata of Early Cretaceous (≤130 Ma) age. The strata below the
“wavy” interval are Early Triassic and older. Note the marked normal faulting affecting mid-Permian reflectors and
older strata. See Mohr et al. (2005) for further details.
Portion b of the figure, from Peru, is a tilted seismic section showing a similar succession of synforms and antiforms.
These only affect Epoch 3 strata, whereas the overlying Epoch 4 strata and underlying Epoch 2 strata are not
affected and present nearly parallel attitudes. Such a characteristic geometry reveals that lateral redistribution of the
Pareni Salt produced during the Jurassic the observed antiforms (from which the Pucará carbonates were partly
eroded) and synforms (in which the Sarayaquillo Formation accumulated, with growth strata geometries). Note the
angular unconformities between the Sarayaquillo Formation and Oriente Group (K), which are strictly of salt-tectonic
origin. Blue S = Pareni Salt; orange Sa = Sarayaquillo Formation; UBOG = unconformity at the base of the Oriente
Group; K = Cretaceous; Cz = Cenozoic; white ‘w’ = primary welds.
The Pucará Group mostly consists of massive carbonates: their high seismic velocity contrasts
with that of the overlying Sarayaquillo Formation, which mainly consists of mudstones and
sandstones, a situation that commonly generates one or several marked reflectors at the top of
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the Pucará. A similar situation occurs at the base of the Pucará, where an impedance contrast
with the Pareni Salt usually produces also a marked reflector. Because impedance contrasts
are rare within the rather massive Pucará, the unit shows only few marked internal reflectors.
These three features collectively make that the Pucará Group is rather easy to identify in
seismic sections (Figs. 4 to 7), which furthermore confirms that the salt, characterized by non-
parallel, isolated and/or irregular shapes, directly underlies it. Indeed, in many areas the Pucará
Group overlies a unit that commonly exhibits lenticular shapes that disappear laterally (e.g., Fig.
7): this unit is obviously the Pareni Salt.
The irregular shape of the Pareni Salt along its initial stratigraphic position directly controls the
shape of the overlying Pucará Group, and the depocenters in the Sarayaquillo Formation (Figs.
4 to 7). In contrast, the Mitu Group belongs to the pre-salt succession and therefore behaves
like the top unit of the Epoch 2 stratigraphic set as far as salt tectonics is concerned.
The Pareni Salt commonly post-dates normal faults that affect all previous units. Among these,
Epoch 2 strata dominantly display regular thicknesses and continuous reflectors, in marked
contrast with the overlying Epoch 3 strata (e.g., Figs. 4 & 6). These extensional faults are
widespread and interpreted to have formed during the characteristic period of marked tectonic
stretching of the Peruvian margin, which controlled the deposition of the Mitu Group.
In the deeper parts of seismic sections, the Cabanillas Group and older rocks units (Epoch 1)
are interpreted to be characterized by absent to poorly defined reflectors.
We underscore that these criteria of stratigraphic identification remain remarkably consistent
throughout the western portion of the GPOB.
A variety of halokinetic structures

Figures 4 to 8 provide only a few examples among the many halokinetic structures that we
currently recognize in the western GPOB. These structures include salt pillows (e.g., Moretti et
al., 2013), domes, diapirs, and walls. Lateral salt wedges, wings, and tongues (Fig. 8), locally
evolving to canopies (Fig. 4), are known. Many synforms and antiforms visible in seismic
information are typical of salt tectonics. There are a few evidences of salt rollers, whereas raft
tectonics is strongly suspected in at least two areas (ongoing research). One lithological
succession is suggestive of a cap rock of pre-mid-Cretaceous age (data not shown). Growth
strata typical of Trusheim’s (1960) stages 2 and 3 are commonly observed (see below).
Many halokinetic structures show details that indicate or suggest that large amounts of salt have
been removed, in many cases probably through dissolution (partial or total; e.g., Figs. 5, 6).
Stratigraphic relationships indicate that much of this dissolution pre-dates the unconformity at
the base of the Oriente Group, and thus probably developed during the Late Jurassic and/or
Early Cretaceous, an epoch characterized in Peru by high precipitations and runoff, and very
large river systems with abundant sand and vegetal remains up to tree size, which as a whole
point to a paleoclimate where water was abundant and thus salt dissolution made easier.
Removal of salt through lateral flow and/or dissolution results in salt welds. Primary salt welds
are common throughout the area of interest. A number of cases of secondary welds are known,
in particular in the northern region (the structure interpreted as “wrench tectonics” by Fernández
et al. [2002] in their Figure 11 is most likely a secondary weld). Tertiary welds are suspected in
at least one sub-basin (ongoing research).
A high rate of salt dissolution during the Late Jurassic and/or Early Cretaceous may have been
the reason why halokinesis and related deformation have clearly decreased after that time
interval in many areas — whereas they have nevertheless continued in others, along with
further dissolutions.
12
Figure 8. Salt wedge (also termed ‘salt wing’) intruded from a diapir into Mesozoic (and Cenozoic?) strata in the
western GPOB. This undisputable case makes that similar structures, ranging from salt wedges to salt tongues, and
even salt canopies, should be expected to occur in the western GPOB. Blue S = salt.
Stratigraphic fingerprints and timing of halokinesis
In his landmark and seminal work, Trusheim (1960) defined evolutionary stages related to diapir
growth that are commonly recorded in the stratigraphy of associated deposits. Here we code
these Trusheim stages as T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4:
· T0 consists in the initial salt layer, and the corresponding period of time.
· T1 refers to non-salt strata directly overlying T0 and deposited until the inception of
halokinesis. This stratigraphic interval is therefore characterized by a somewhat regular
thickness, i.e. little to no differential subsidence. T1 is thus “post-salt” but “ante-halokinesis”.
· T2 groups syn-halokinetic strata displaying differential subsidence with depocenters away from
developing domes, and approximately equidistant from these. Growth strata are common and
characteristic.
13
· T3 also groups syn-halokinetic strata displaying differential subsidence, but with depocenters
closely flanking the growing diapirs. Growth strata are also common and characteristic.
· T4 consists in a dominantly post-halokinetic unit, i.e. showing only subordinate halokinetic
features, if any.
Stages T2 and T3 are thus characterized by different sets of growth strata specific to salt
tectonics, that may present complex patterns of small-scale unconformities. The difference
between types T2 and T3 lies in the distance of the depocenters to the emerging pillows,
domes, or diapirs, making that they may grade into one another. In fact the transition from T2 to
T3 amounts to a shifting of depocenters toward nearby diapirs, which is of course expected to
be somewhat progressive.
In seismic sections from the western GPOB (e.g., Figs. 4 to 7), stage T0 corresponds to the
Pareni Salt, stage T1 corresponds to most of the Pucará Group, stages T2 and T3 are generally
best recognized in the Sarayaquillo Formation, and stage T4 is formed by the Epoch 4
stratigraphic set.
Indeed, the Sarayaquillo Formation often displays marked thickness variations and inner growth
geometries that reflect it was deposited during the major development of halokinesis (stages T2
and T3 in Trusheim’s [1960] model). In contrast, the marked thickness variations displayed by
the Pareni Salt are due to salt flow, migration, and removal that accompanied halokinesis.
These observations provide a solid basis to affirm that vigorous halokinesis developed during
the Jurassic, possibly as early as the late Liassic given that, in Andean outcrops, limestone
beds in the upper Condorsinga Formation exhibit gentle soft-sediment deformation compatible
with early halokinesis.
A further confirmation of this deduction that halokinetic structures formed in the Jurassic is
provided by the Corontachaca Formation (Sánchez, 1995; Basuki et al., 2008; Ojeda et al.,
2013). This unit consists of up to ≥400 m-thick sedimentary breccias (to conglomerates) that
have reworked clasts of Pucará carbonates (and locally of red mudstones) and are now well
cemented by calcareous material. “Sulfurous” waterfalls are locally associated with this breccia
unit (Sánchez, 1995), suggesting some sulfur-bearing material(s) locally occur(s) at depth,
whereas evaporites including sulfates have been described beneath the Pucará carbonates in
the same area (Benavides, 1962/1968; Sánchez, 1995; Basuki et al., 2008).
These Corontachaca breccias crop out mostly east of the Utcubamba river in the Jumbilla and
Chachapoyas sheets (~6ºS–~78ºW), where they overlie the Pucará Group with a moderate
angular unconformity (Sánchez, 1995) — implying some kind of coeval tectonic activity. In the
same area, the Sarayaquillo Formation overlies the Pucará Group with an angular unconformity,
or, laterally, the Corontachaca breccias with another unconformity that may be locally angular
(Sánchez, 1995). In addition, the Cretaceous Oriente Group overlies all these units with an
another locally angular unconformity (Sánchez, 1995; Basuki et al., 2008; Ojeda et al., 2013),
similarly to what is observed in seismic sections from the western GPOB.
Such unusual stratigraphic relationships are suggestive of growth strata as they imply
substantial tectonic movements after or during the deposition of the Pucará carbonates, and
before or during the deposition of the Sarayaquillo Formation, i.e. during part of the Jurassic.
Because evaporites are locally known in the same area (Sánchez, 1995; and see above), the
simplest interpretation (Fig. 9) is that these Jurassic movements were the corresponding local
equivalents of the Jurassic halokinetic motions revealed by the seismic information that extends
eastwards starting only 100 km east of the main outcrops of the Corontachaca breccias. We
therefore expect that reflectors corresponding to deposits lithologically similar to the
Corontachaca breccias should overlie the Pucará Group in seismic sections along antiforms
affecting this unit.
14
Figure 9. Schematic diagram (not to scale) explaining the known stratigraphic relationships between the Pucará
Group (carbonates), the Corontachaca Formation (breccias and conglomerates, markedly dominated by carbonate
clasts), and the Sarayaquillo Formation (terrestrial red beds) in the Chachapoyas area (~6ºS–~78ºW). The latter is
shown here presenting growth strata geometries because it does in seismic sections only 100-150 km to the east and
elsewhere in the western GPOB. The interdigitation of the Corontachaca and Sarayaquillo formations during uplift
and erosion of the Pucará carbonates was already illustrated by Ojeda et al. (2013), but within the mainstream
paradigm of “compressional tectonics”. See Poprawski et al. (2016) for didactic examples of conglomeratic growth
strata controlled by diapir growth (= “halokinetic sequences”) in carbonate systems.
Discussion and conclusions
The western region of the Greater Peruvian Oriente Basin (GPOB), north of ~12ºS, was the
locus of major salt deposition and subsequent halokinesis, which is obviously of very high
interest for hydrocarbon exploration in Peru. The total area that was initially covered by this salt
basin is currently estimated to have been at least 150,000 km2.
Reliable published and unpublished field evidence and analysis of seismic information
consistently converge to identify that the corresponding salt was initially deposited as a
stratigraphic unit, called the Pareni Formation, located between the typical facies of the Mitu
and Pucará groups. This stratigraphic position makes that the Pareni Salt is of Late Triassic
age, and more precisely early Late Norian according to the currently available chronological
data.
Accumulation of the Pareni Salt thus occurred in the tectonic rift that had been developing
during the deposition of the Mitu Group (i.e., since the late Middle Triassic). Given the very large
salt volumes involved in subsequent halokinesis, it is likely that the Pareni Salt was initially at
least several 100s of m-thick, and thickened westwards if considered from the Subandean belt.
Seismic sections clearly show that the Pareni Salt directly post-dates most extensional
structures generated during the intense regional extensional tectonics characteristic of the Mitu
stratigraphic interval, and directly pre-dates the Pucará Group, which is identified thanks to its
peculiar seismic characteristics (i.e.: marked reflectors beneath and above, poor reflectors
within, fair lateral regularity in thickness).
15
The Pucará Group mostly consists of limestones and dolostones. It is usually 0.5–2.5 km-thick,
and may locally be over 4 km in thickness along the eastern edge of the Eastern Cordillera
(Rosas et al., 1996). Halokinesis is usually triggered when the overlying burden is >1 km-thick
and reaches a density ≥2.2 g/cm3 through lithification. Because carbonates are known to lithify
rapidly to reach densities ≥2.5 g/cm3, and given the thicknesses reported for the Pucará Group,
it is expected that the Pareni Salt underwent halokinesis as early as the late Liassic.
A number of independent observations do indicate that halokinesis developed indeed during the
Jurassic (see above). In particular, Trusheim’s (1960) stages are commonly recognized in
seismic sections, with syn-halokinetic stages T2 and T3 corresponding to the Jurassic
Sarayaquillo Formation, which presents characteristic thickness variations and related
geometries, including growth strata.
Furthermore, sedimentary breccias and conglomerates consisting of carbonate clasts, which

form the Corontachaca Formation in the Utcubamba region, resulted from the erosion, and thus
emergence, of Pucará carbonates, therefore providing a direct illustration of dome-, diapir-, or
wall-forming halokinesis of the Pareni Salt during the Jurassic (Fig. 9). In an interesting short
paper, Ojeda et al. (2013) correctly recognized that deposition of the same unit resulted from
deformation and uplift of the Pucará carbonates, but interpreted this deformation as caused by
“compressional tectonics”, closely following the mainstream paradigm (see below).
Halokinesis produced a wide variety of classical structures, including salt pillows, domes,
diapirs, walls, wedges, wings, tongues, canopies, rollers, as well as growth strata, cap rocks,
and possibly rafts. Many synforms and antiforms observed in seismic information are typical of
salt tectonics, and should not be interpreted as “compressional” (e.g., Fig. 7).
Although many of these features largely developed during the Jurassic, halokinesis continued
into the Cretaceous and Cenozoic in specific areas, and is locally active today. Because no
compressional conditions existed during the Jurassic, it must be concluded that most of the
observed salt-tectonic features developed independently of any compressional stress and
strain, which is in agreement with what is actually displayed in seismic information. This
deduction does not preclude, however, that halokinetic structures were partly reactivated or
used when compressional stresses built up and propagated eastwards in the Late Cenozoic.
We take here the liberty to call to mind that unbiased geologists do not ignore that there is much
more to salt tectonics than salt just providing a special, effective lubricant for thrust tectonics.
Although distinguishing between pristine salt-tectonic structures of Jurassic age and their
evolution in relation with later compression is beyond the scope of this paper, we underline that
our interpretations of seismic information suggest that the amount of Late Cenozoic shortening
has apparently been in fact surprisingly limited in the area of interest.
The structures produced by halokinesis of the Pareni Salt are obviously of very high interest for
hydrocarbon exploration, as they may have concentrated oil and/or gas accumulations derived
from regional source rocks. In particular, the Pucará Group consists of carbonates and
subordinate shales that are often organic-rich and even bituminous, and is therefore known to
provide good source rocks. Other good source rocks occur in units belonging to epochs 1
and 2, i.e. ranging from the Cabanillas Group to the Permian Ene Formation.
Our findings and conclusions result in a quite consistent picture, which contrasts with some
former studies. In particular, it appears likely that most, if not all, of the cases of deformation
assigned by Calderón et al. (2017) to a purported “Permian orogeny” and “Middle Permian fold-
and-thrust belt” (how could it be something else when brains are blinded by the fold-thrust
paradigm?) correspond in fact to the Jurassic halokinesis demonstrated here, due to
misidentification of stratigraphic units and deformational structures by these authors. This very
doubtful “Permian orogeny” (or “fold-and-thrust belt”) is therefore nothing else than one more
myth in the already thick register of biased (to wrong) Andean tectonic interpretations.
16
Geological myths develop when the real geology is twisted, concealed, or even suppressed, in
order to fit fashionable and/or popular pre-established models, and result in one-track thinking
(Sempere, 2017). It is evident that clinging blindly to geological myths does not augur much
success in exploration. Striving to get the geology right requires to get rid of such myths, an
effort that represents a necessary first step to tread on the long path toward new discoveries.
Many similar cases illustrate the regrettable fact that, in the entire Andean realm, just any
deformation is generally readily interpreted as “compressional tectonics” — if not labelled as
some “fold-and-thrust belt” —, an automatic reflex that unfortunately prevents other interesting
perspectives to be used for more accurate, and thus successful, exploration, whether it is
directed at hydrocarbons or metals.
One of our major recommendations is thus that at least a diversification of tectonic models is
needed in order to better understand the existing structures and related potential traps in the
western region of northern and central Amazonian Peru. The traditional tectonic approach, i.e.
the general assumption that all deformation along the sub-Andes results from thin-skinned (or
thick-skinned) shortening, may miss points that are crucial for successful hydrocarbon
exploration, because Jurassic-age salt tectonics now appears to have been a major mode of
deformation and trap formation in the western GPOB.
From a more general perspective, accumulation of such large amounts of Late Triassic salt over
such an extended region should obviously attract much attention and favor exploration
strategies that include salt plays. Although the salt-tectonics perspective we advocate has been
suppressed until now due to the dominance of the fold-thrust-belt paradigm, we believe that our
findings result in a deeply consistent picture, and might thus open significant avenues for further
hydrocarbon exploration in the considered region.
Acknowledgments
T.P.A.S. wishes to thank the geological staff at Pluspetrol Peru Corporation, Lima, and in particular Federico
Seminario, Juan Chung, Pierre Callot, and Martín Iribarne, for having provided the initial opportunity to study in detail
the characteristics of salt tectonics in Subandean central Peru.
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Sempere, T.P.A., & Cotrina, J. 2018. An overlooked giant salt basin in Peru. INGEPET, 9th, Lima, paper GEO-EX-TS-10-N, 18 p.

AN OVERLOOKED GIANT SALT BASIN IN PERU

Thierry P.A. Sempere (ANDES C&P, Lima, Peru; thierrysempere@icloud.com) &

Stratigraphic definition and depositional age of the main salt unit

Figure 3. The marked structural

Analysis of seismic information

A variety of halokinetic structures

Stratigraphic fingerprints and timing of halokinesis

Discussion and conclusions

Furthermore, sedimentary breccias and conglomerates consisting of carbonate clasts, which

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