Pressure compartments are the result of lithology, the ability to contain/expell fluids, and stresses from the dynamics of whatever tectonics operate in the area. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, a normal pressured unit overlies a geopressured or over-pressured compartment that both rest above the salt. Directly northward of the Sigsbee Escarpment, there is a relatively thin, low-velocity zone known locally as a “gumbo zone”. Here two other pressure compartments are proposed. The origin of them is two-fold. First, initial sedimentation consists of pelagic clay draped over oceanic and transitional crust. Later, as the continental margin progrades nearer sedimentation becomes hemipelagic and coarser as gravity-driven sediments predominate. Secondly, as the salt wedge overrides a given spot of the basement, it is possible to develop a shear couple between the migrating salt and the stationary basement. The resultant shear (the site of the next strike-slip fault) may change pressures beneath the salt such that the shear may create two pressure compartments. The differences between the two compartments may be accentuated by lithologic changes caused by depositional mechanisms.
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