Juan I. Soto

Verified

Juan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Juan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at University of Granada

Structural systems involving mobile shale represent one of the most difficult challenges for geoscientists dedicated to exploring the subsurface structure of continental margins. Mobile-shale structures range from surficial mud volcanoes to deeply buried shale diapirs and shale-cored folds. Where mobile shales occur, seismic imaging is typically po...

Mud volcanoes are fed largely by fracture systems, but fracture systems are common in fold-and-thrust belts (FTBs), and not all of them extrude mud volcanoes. One popular hypothesis is that mud volcanoes extrude up normal faults and fractures in the crests of thrust-related anticlines. Using a high-resolution depth-migrated seismic cube in the nort...

The Ionian Zone (IZ) is one of the key elements of the fold and thrust belt (FTB) of the Albanian and Hellenides orogen and contains large outcrops of Triassic evaporites. The IZ consists of various thrust sheets with a general westward vergence, stacking over the Apulian and Pre‐Apulian zones, and repeating a thick carbonate sequence of Upper Tria...

The coexistence of two low-shear strength layers in a continental margin, such as salt and shales, conditions the resulting structural style and also constitutes a challenge for seismic imaging and energy resource exploration. We have analyzed the three-dimensional structure of a mixed salt-shale system in the western Gulf of Mexico, in the East Br...

Taiwan is an active orogen where a west-verging fold-and-thrust belt deforms a Plio-Pleistocene foreland basin sequence. In southwestern Taiwan, the 3-4-km-thick Gutingkeng mudstone, Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene in age, has similar characteristics to mobile shales, such as overpressure conditions and sourcing mud volcanoes. Present uplift rate...

550.8:553.98 Ключевые слова: Южно-Каспийская впадина, майкопские отложения, неньютоновская жидкость, грязевой вулканизм, эруптивный канал, тектонические опускания, дегазация оса-дочного слоя земной коры. Açar sözlər: Cənubi Xəzər çökəkliyi, Maykop çöküntüləri, qeyri-nyuton maye, palçıq vulkanizmi, püskürmə kanalı, tektonik çökmə, yer qabığının çökü...

There is a growing interest in geothermal energy across various applications, including conventional geothermal, Enhanced Geothermal Systems, deep-loop systems, geopressured energy storage, geothermal brine extraction, and the re-utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells. This paper explores new horizons for geothermal applications, specifically a...

The South Caspian Basin (SCB) constitutes a classic province to study mud volcanoes and their associated processes. About 280 active mud volcanoes have been documented in the offshore and the onshore areas of Azerbaijan, emitting water, hydrocarbons (oil and mainly methane), and fluidized muds that transport solid fragments from deep sedimentary se...

There is a growing interest in geothermal energy across various applications, including conventional geothermal, Enhanced Geothermal Systems, deep-loop systems, repurposing Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage wells, geothermal brine extraction, and the re-utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells. This paper explores new horizons for geothermal applic...

Weak substrates, such as salt and mobile shales, exert a strong control on deformation styles in all structural settings, especially those undergoing contraction. Despite both materials being very weak, they are mechanically very different. Salt is weak and will flow in a ductile fashion under most geologic conditions, whereas shales only become mo...

The staggering vulnerability of most conventional energy sources (especially fossil fuels) has caused the need to realign and diversify the energy mix of most countries. Subsequently, numerous countries are experiencing a surge in interest in geothermal energy in all sorts of applications, including but not limited to, conventional geothermal, EGS,...

The Ionian Zone (IZ) is one of the key elements of the external zones of the Albanian Hellenides orogen and contains large outcrops of Triassic evaporites. The IZ consists of various thrust sheets with a general westward vergence, stacking over the Apulian and Pre-Apulian zones, and repeating a thick carbonate sequence of Late Triassic or Early Jur...

The same sense movement on any given fault plane occurs much more frequently compared to the cases when the sense reverses. Therefore, positive or negative structural inversions are regarded as special cases within the much more general and typical process of fault reactivation. Extensional reactivation of former reverse faults or, specifically th...

The same sense movement on any given fault plane occurs much more frequently compared to the cases when the sense reverses. Therefore, positive or negative structural inversions are regarded as special cases within the much more general and typical process of fault reactivation. Extensional reactivation of former reverse faults or, specifically thr...

The East Breaks foldbelt comprises a series of dominantly slope-parallel folds and thrusts detached on a mostly evacuated salt canopy on the northern Gulf of Mexico slope. The canopy was emplaced near the end of the Eocene. The foldbelt formed mostly in the Oligocene, although minor amounts of shortening continued through the Miocene. We attribute...

Deformation on shale‐rich continental margins is commonly associated with thin‐skinned extension above mobile shales. Normal faulting and shale mobilization are widespread on such margins, being associated with and controlled by progradation and gravitational failure of deltaic sedimentary wedges. However, due to uncertainties in seismically imagin...

Deformation on shale-rich continental margins is commonly associated with thin-skinned extension above mobile shales. Normal faulting and shale mobilization are widespread on such margins, being associated with and controlled by progradation and gravitational failure of deltaic sedimentary wedges. However, due to limitations in our ability to seism...

Updated model on a salt canopy made up by Triassic salt that was emplaced initially ( i. e. Late Cretceous-Paleogene time) as a passive margin canopy and later ( mostly during Late Miocene time) emplaced as a thrust sheet in the western Betic Cordillera of southern Spain. Examples of primary, secondary and tertiary minibasins, carapaces, salt strin...

We present an overview of the crustal architecture of the continental margins of the oceanic Algerian Basin in the westernmost Mediterranean Sea. During the Cenozoic, and with a variable oblique convergence between the African and Eurasian plates, the Western Mediterranean Sea has experienced thinning and extension behind a tight orogenic arc forme...

Surface geology, well data, and seismic profiles confirm the occurrence of an extensive salt canopy in the western Betic Cordillera. Upper Triassic (Keuper) evaporites were emplaced allochthonously in the South-Iberian paleomargin of the Tethys during Upper Cretaceous–Paleogene time. The canopy was later deformed during the Neogene (Miocene–Pliocen...

(article accesible through: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1dSkA2weQlVJi) Seismic interpretation of mobile shales is challenging, mostly because of their unclear seismic expression. Imaging of mobile shales is difficult because of their low seismic-impedance contrast with many sedimentary rocks, spatial variation of their seismic properties, compl...

We have identified seven mechanisms by which mobile shales can pierce their roofs. The operative piercement mechanism depends on mobile-shale viscosity, roof strength, and stress state. For mobile shales at depths of several kilometers, three mechanisms are possible: fracture piercement, thrust piercement, and ductile “piercement.” However, injecti...

Structural systems involving mobile shale represent one of the most difficult challenges for geoscientists dedicated to exploring the subsurface structure of continental margins. Mobile-shale structures range from surficial mud volcanoes to deeply buried shale diapirs and shale-cored folds. Where mobile shales occur, seismic imaging is typically po...

Shortening styles in salt‐influenced basins can vary markedly, with the volume and distribution of salt prior to shortening being a key control. Here we use a suite of physical models to examine styles of thin‐skinned regional shortening in settings where the pre‐shortening structure comprised minibasins surrounded by salt (‘isolated‐minibasin’ pro...

Shortening styles in salt-influenced fold-and-thrust belts can vary markedly, with the volume and distribution of salt prior to shortening being a key control. Here we use a suite of physical models to examine styles of thin-skinned shortening in settings where the precursor structure comprised minibasins surrounded by salt (‘isolated-minibasin’ pr...

Shortening styles in salt-influenced fold-and-thrust belts can vary markedly, with the volume and distribution of salt prior to shortening being a key control. Here we use a suite of physical models to examine styles of thin-skinned shortening in settings where the precursor structure comprised minibasins surrounded by salt (‘isolated-minibasin’ pr...

The amount of discovered hydrocarbons associated with Permotriassic evaporites in the vast geographic area of Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic region is very significant. These evaporites have a very wide ranging impact on the petroleum system elements. The most variable impact appears to be the one affecting the trapping style which is subdiv...

Passive-margin salt basins tend to be much more deformed than their nonsalt equivalents, but they are by no means all the same. We used seismic data to study the Salina del Bravo region, northeast Mexico, to investigate the ways in which margin configuration and postsalt uplift history can influence passive-margin salt tectonics. The Salina del Bra...

We unravelled the Alpine structure and evolution of the western margin of the Valencia Trough, SE of the Ebro Delta, through the interpretation of a large seismic cube (PSTM, ~3000 km2) and the integration of a large dataset of exploratory wells. The main Alpine structures are SW-NE-directed thrusts with a NW vergence and a Late Cretaceous-Paleogen...

Lateral shortening is expressed in unique ways in salt basins, especially if pre-shortening diapirs are present. We present an overview and new 3-D conceptual models capturing the evolution of shortening structures formed in salt provinces dominated by precursor isolated diapirs (termed isolated-diapir provinces). In such provinces, isolated diapir...

Program and activities of the past granada AAPG workshop

Permo-Triassic Salt Provinces of Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic Margins: Tectonics and Hydrocarbon Potential deals with the evolution and tectonic implications of the Upper Permian and Triassic (Keuper) evaporite rocks in the Atlantic margins from Canada or Greenland to Mauritania, Morocco and Iberia, North Africa and the Alpine orogenic sys...

The Ionian fold-and-thrust belt (FTB) is formed by a piggyback sequence of W-directed thrusts that were emplaced over the Apulian Platform during the late Oligocene to the latest Miocene. From bottom to top, the Cika, Kurveleshi, and Berati belts constitute the three main thrust sheets of the Ionian FTB. All of them contain a rather similar thick s...

This chapter provides a brief overview of the contents and organization of this book. A detailed chronostratigraphic scale for the Permian and Triassic systems is presented, including an updated chronology of the Zechstein, Buntsandstein, Muschelkalk and Keuper groups, together with a review of the age of the different evaporite levels identified i...

Regional integration of field, 2D seismic and well-log data suggests that most of the Triassic of the external domain of the Betic-Rif orogenic belt in the Western Mediterranean is allochthonous. Surface data along the foothills of the Western Betic Cordillera and western Guadalquivir Valley show Triassic evaporites overlain by units made up of Upp...

The amount of discovered hydrocarbons associated with Permo-Triassic evaporites in the vast geographic area of Europe, North Africa, and the Atlantic region is enormous. The evaporites have a very wide-ranging impact on the petroleum system elements. The most variable impact appears to be the one affecting the trapping style, which is subdivided in...

The Alboran Sea in the Mediterranean is a back-arc basin developed during the Miocene by extensional collapse within an arc-shaped orogen. A major depocenter (>10 km [>6.2 mi]) is located to the west of the basin (West Alboran Basin [WAB]) and contains a diapiric province with overpressured shales and mud volcanoes. Seismic and well data are used t...

Extract This thematic set of papers is derived from a workshop, dedicated to the Messinian sequence, which was convened during the 77th EAGE Conference and Exhibition in Madrid in 2015. The main goal of the workshop was to introduce a geological exploration topic to the EAGE meeting. With this objective, and in collaboration with Héctor González of...

The complete shape of an active fold in the western margin of the South Caspian Basin is established with a seismic section from a post-stacked cube migrated in depth. The structure is an open anticline, which deforms a thick sequence (more than 7 km) of Late Miocene to Pliocene sediments: the productive series (PS 5.9–3.1 Ma). A major erosive unco...

The internal structure of one of the common fold structures in the western margin of the South Caspian Basin (SCB) has been characterized in 3D using a depth-migrated seismic cube in offshore Azerbaijan. The fold corresponds to a NNW-SSE anticline with a basinward vergence; i.e., eastwards, because in this direction of the margin the SCB is floored...

The suggestion of a very large (1,600 m!) sea-level drop in the Black Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) is primarily based on the findings of shallow-water clastics and carbonates in DSDP wells 380 and 381. However, the re-interpretation of the core data from these wells, including the integration of recently acquired long-offset seism...

Analyses of seismograms from ~1,100 north-Moroccan earthquakes recorded at stations of the Red Sísmica de Andalucía (Southern Spain) reveal the systematic presence of late phases embedded in the earthquake codas. These phases have distinctive frequency contents, similar to the P and S spectra and quite different to the frequency contents of the ear...

We present results of a tectonic geomorphology analysis of river networks along the south-east portion of the Betic Cordillera, from Guadix basin to Almeria coast, including Sierra Nevada and Sierra de Gàdor and intervening intermountain basins. The Betic cordillera is a manifestation of the active continental collision between Iberia and the Albor...

We characterize the most-recent evolution of a single anticline structure cored by mud in the western South Caspian Basin using a depth-migrated seismic cube provided by Repsol. Our detailed study of the shallow structure ( \(<\) 2 km depth) of this fold aims to unravel the relationships between deformation, sedimentation, and seafloor instability...

We have analyzed the geometry of a shale-cored anticline in the South Caspian Basin using a post-stack 3D seismic cube provided by Repsol. It results to be a non-cylindrical fold intruded by mud that differently deforms the Productive Series (PS; 6 to \({\sim }{3}\,\mathrm{{Ma}}\)), and the Akchagyl, Apsheron and Gelasian formations (post-PS; \({)....

A comprehensive interpretation of single and multichannel seismic reflection profiles integrated with biostratigraphical data and log information from nearby DSDP and ODP wells has been used to constrain the late Messinian to Quaternary basin evolution of the central part of the Alboran Sea Basin. We found that deformation is heterogeneously distri...

This contribution is intended to show some of the most recent, eventually active, shale structures developed in the northwestern margin of the Alboran Sea in the western Mediterranean. Most marine geophysical data used for this study are from surveys conducted by ConocoPhillips in 2000 and 2001 in the Alboran Sea. This company explored the western...

The Caspian Sea is a Neogene basin associated with the Alpine-Himalayan collision and has one of the major sedimentary accumulations in the world. This basin has an important oil and gas production with proven oil reserves greater than 20 billion of oil equivalent barrels. The South Caspian Basin in particular, comprises a thick (~ 10 km), fluvio-d...

The seafloor of the Alboran Sea in the western Mediterranean is disrupted by deformations resulting from convergence between the African and Eurasian plates. Based on a compilation of existing and new multibeam bathymetry data and high-resolution seismic profiles, our main objective was to characterize the most recent structures in the central sect...

We present results of the processing of several networks of CGPS stations distributed over Iberian Peninsula. Such networks diverge on their quality since some were installed in order to provide support to surveying applications (RTK networks), where the required stability of the monument is lower than for geodynamic applications. Nevertheless, we...

Fluvial piracy in the Guadix-Baza basin (southeast Spain) promoted erosion of a high volume of sediments during the late Quaternary, after the former internal drainage of this basin changed to external due to headward erosion by the Guadalquivir River. As a response to load release, this basin underwent uplift, which, in turn, enhanced fluvial inci...

We analyze the deformation and folding history of a single anticline culmination in the South Caspian Basin, offshore Azerbaijan, using a post-stack 3D seismic cube provided by REPSOL. Folding occurred simultaneously to mud diapir perforation and extrusion, and shortening rates vary along the anticline axis. Maximum shortening estimates are inferre...

The Alboran Sea in the western Mediterranean is affected by post-Miocene deformations conditioned by the coaeval convergence between the African and Eurasian plates. Its central sector -encompassing the Alboran Ridge and the Yusuf Lineament- depicts an abrupt morphology, where active tectonic processes shaping the seafloor can be analysed. Using mu...

The Alboran Basin is a back-arc basin in the Mediterranean developed during the Miocene by the extensional collapse of the thick continental orogen known as the Betic-Rif arc. Collision and basin formation occurred in the Neogene as a result of oblique convergence of the Eurasian and African plates. A major, curved depocenter (with sedimentary accu...

We have modeled thermal structure of the crust in the western Mediterranean on the basis of inversion of heat flow and elevation in the context of Airy's isostatic equilibrium. Modeling results reveal dramatic variations in crustal temperatures within the Gibraltar Arc region. The steep gradients in crustal thickness, together with the regional hea...

On the basis of the lithospheric structure of the Gibraltar Arc (western Mediterranean), we constrain depth distribution of crustal seismicity and active tectonics by means of rheological modeling. Crustal yield strength and depth of the brittle-ductile transition zone (BDT) mimic the curvature of the arc with maximum depths of 12–9 km whereas in t...

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of our friend Pr. Ahmed Ben Ya¨ch , whose promising scientific activity has been interrupted too early, and of Gabriel Suter, the father of the Rifian geological mapping, just disappeared after a long Moroccan career. 5.1 General References: Considering only the most recent and general references, we may cite...

The Gibraltar Arc in the western Mediterranean consists of the Betic and Rif Alpine chains and the Alboran Sea Basin. Four types of stress indicators (wellbore breakouts, earthquake focal plane mechanisms, young geologic fault slip data, and hydraulic fracture orientations) indicate a regional NW-SE compressive stress field resulting from Africa-Eu...

http://www.sociedadgeologica.es/publicaciones/rev/20(3-4).html

New Lu-Hf garnet growth ages from high-pressure rocks from the structurally lowest terrane (Nevado-Filabride Complex) in the Betic Cordillera of southern Spain indicate early Miocene subduction of continental crust, requiring significant revision of the timing and processes of orogeny in the western part of the Alpine orogenic system. Mafic eclogit...

The southern margin of the Iberian Peninsula hosts the convergent boundary between the European and African Plates. The area is characterised by low to moderate magnitude shallow earthquakes, although large historical events have also occurred. In order to determine the possible sources of these events, we recently acquired swath-bathymetry, TOBI s...

Logging data from several onshore and offshore deep wells located at the South-Iberian Margin were selected to perform breakout analysis. Every data used to determine the orientation of breakouts come from magnetically oriented four-arm caliper which is part of the dipmeter logging tool. Most of the wells were drilled through Plio-Quaternary and la...

A three dimensional rheological model has been developed in the Betic-Rif and Alboran Sea region to characterize the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) in the upper crust; calculating a multiple set of regularly spaced strength profiles based on a synthetic 3D lithospheric structure that gathers most of the available geological and geophysical data i...

In spite of the knowledge on the distribution and character of the upper crustal seismicity in the Alboran Sea (Westernmost Mediterranean) and surrounding Alpine mountain chains (Betics and Rif), and the abundance of geological data on the kinematics and tectonic evolution of recent normal faulting, there is a lack of a satisfactory correlation bet...

The intense tectonic activity of Eastern Mediterranean is of great interest for many decades. Recently, sea-level monitoring and climate change studies generated great interest as well as for its regional oceanography. A plethora of observations has convincingly demonstrated the importance of the area for regional meteorological and climatologic ch...

Mud diapirism and volcanism originated in the major depocenter of the Alborán Sea Basin (the West Alborán Basin, WAB, with a sedimentary infill with more than 8 km) from overpressured sediments (partly olistostromes) of early to middle Miocene age, belonging to the lowermost sedimentary unit filling the basin (Unit VI). Mud diapirism started in the...

The Sierra Nevada elongated dome in the Betic hinterland (westernmost Mediterranean region) formed by polymetamorphic, non-melted rocks involving crustal thickening and subsequent exhumation via extensional denudation including both normal faulting and vertical ductile thinning. Core rocks record a clockwise P-T-t path with segments of quasi-isothe...

The Betic (Southern Spain) and the Rif (Morocco) mountain chains, connected through the Gibraltar Strait, shapes a W-E elongated and arcuate Alpine orogenic belt. The Alborán Sea, in continuity to the east with the South Balearic Basin, is located in the inner part of this alpine belt. The Iberian and African continental forelands bound the region...

The Betic (Southern Spain) and the Rif (Morocco) mountain chains, connected through the Gibraltar Strait, shapes a W-E elongated and arcuate Alpine orogenic belt. The Alborân Sea, in continuity to the east with the South Balearic Basin, is located in the inner part of this alpine belt. The Iberian and African continental forelands bound the region...

High resolution and multichannel seismic profiles depict the Pliocene to Recent evolution of the mud diapirism in the West Alboran Basin (WAB) and its relationship with the Miocene diapir province that occupies the WAB depocentre. During the early to middle Miocene period of basin extension (16 to 9 Ma), normal faulting triggered the diapirism from...

The continental margin south of Almeria, located at the NE end of the Alboran Sea, is a complex and active area characterized by recent swarms of superficial earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from Mw 5.1 and 4.7 (Stich et al., in press). With the main objective of identifying active structures potentially generators of earthquakes, we recently su...

Recent surveys from the West Alboran Basin (WAB), in the Westernmost Mediterranean, show the occurrence of active mud volcanoes in the sea floor of the Spanish and Moroccan margins. Mud volcanoes build on from the mud diapir province of the WAB and are connected to mud diapir structures, in a region corresponding to the major sedimentary depocenter...

During the BASACALB-TTR9 cruise of the R/V Professor Logachev (1999), two mud volcanoes (called Marrakech and Granada) were discovered in the southern sector of the mud diapir province in the West Alboran Basin (WAB). This paper presents micropaleontological and geophysical data on these mud volcanoes from gravity core samples, sidescan sonar (OKEA...