Restoration of basins driven by extension and salt tectonics: Example from the Cotiella Basin in the central Pyrenees

The structure of the Cotiella Basin consists of four well differentiated salt-floored sub-basins which contain more than 6 km of halokinetic growth-strata and have been interpreted to be formed by gravity-driven extensional faults and diapirism during the middle Coniacian – early Santonian. The subsequent Pyrenean orogeny (late Santonian to Miocene) inverted the extensional basins and squeezed the diapirs leaving little trace of the original salt volume, although both the extensional and the salt-related features of the Cotiella Basin were preserved. This paper provides new insights into the evolution of the Cotiella Basin by establishing a correlation between sub-basins by means of structural restorations. The workflow followed and the assumptions made during the restoration of the inversion and especially of the extensional structures are outlined in detail.