INTRODUCTION TO SALT-DOME LOCATIONS IN THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN, SOUTH-CENTRAL UNITED STATES TEXAS ENERGY EXPLORATION LLC

The Gulf Coast Regional Aquifer-System Analysis (RASA) covers an area of 230,000 square miles onshore and 60,000 square miles of the adjacent Continental Shelf (fig. 1) (Grubb, 1987). The aquifer system consists of Cenozoic sediments that were divided into aquifers, permeable zones, and confining units (Grubb, 1987, p. 104). This division was accomplished by: 1) Identifying areally extensive units of low permeability; 2) identifying large hydraulic conductivity contrasts between adjacent permeable zones not separated by a regional confining unit; and 3) identifying variations in hydraulic head with depth (Weiss and Williamson, 1985; Weiss, 1990; and Hosman and Weiss, 1988).