Extensively cored cyclic evaporites of the San Andres Formation (Guadalupian) of the Palo Duro Basin, Texas Panhandle, provided fundamental information for interpreting evaporite depositional processes. These evaporites preserve exceptionally sensitive indicators of water-level fluctuation in their depositional environment: (1) sedimentary fabrics that formed during evaporite deposition; (2) sedimentary features, surfaces, and insoluble residues that formed during evaporite dissolution; and (3) diagenetic overprints that formed during evaporite brine evolution.

Data from conventional two- and three-dimensional seismic surveys and wells were used to analyze the morphology of salt structures and to determine the history of salt emplacement in a 1,500-mi2 (3,885-km2) region of the continental slope, northeast Green Canyon Area. Salt structures within the region include stocks, massifs, an allochthonous sheet, and remnant-salt structures. Also within this region is a largely salt free area (at least to a depth of 20,000 to 25,000 ft (6,100 to 7,600 m) that coincides with a U-shaped submarine trough.