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A LOOK BACK
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By MARLAN DOWNEY

Papers Were 'Dome-inating'

Perhaps a review -- and awareness -- of the past may make us better geologists in the future.

December 1955 saw the publication in the AAPG BULLETIN of two fine papers on salt dome formation.

The first paper, "History of Concepts of Gulf Coast Salt Dome Formation," by the famous geophysicist L.L. Nettleton, provided a history of the status of technology as it related to understanding salt domes. Of course, Nettleton was a pioneer in the use of gravity techniques for mapping salt domes.

The second paper, by Travis Parker and A.N. McDowell, reported on "Model Studies of Salt Dome Tectonics."

In a stroke, these two papers put the new specialty of salt dome tectonics on a firm observational and experimental basis. The modeling provided excellent insights into conditions for initiating salt dome growth, the characteristics of rim synclines and the radial fracture patterns on salt domes.

Our difficulties of interpreting seismic data near salt domes has been eased immeasurably by the patterns of deformation discovered and demonstrated by Parker and McDowell.

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