• Departure from Lisbon Airport (12:00 am)

• DrIve to Alcobaça

• Hotel (Alcobaça )

• Field course briefing meeting (Hotel)

• Dinner at Alcobaça

On the first day the group will drive to an hotel in Alcobaça where a field course briefing meeting will take place.

This will include an HSE Briefing, geological setting and general concepts on salt tectonics.

• Depart from Alcobaça

• Óbidos Castle outcrops

• Lunch at Óbidos

• Sogerela mine

• Sobral da Lagoa quarry

• Hotel at Alcobaça

• Summary meeting

• Dinner at Alcobaça

On this day the group will examine the eastern and western flanks of the Caldas da Rainha-Óbidos Diapir and the structures within the salt sequence, the Dagorda evaporite sequence.

The internal diapir structures will be observed at the Óbidos Castle and the SOGERELA Quarry. At the castle sub-vertical intra-salt Hettangian limestone stringers are folded to the horizontal, possibly representing a change in the diapir flow from a vertical neck to a glacier. At the quarry, located in the centre of the diapir, shales, dolomitic shales and evaporites (mainly gypsum but also halite at depth) are tightly folded with steeply-plunging curtain fold axes in most of the quarry.

On the western flank of the diapir, at Sobral da Lagoa, the upturned Upper Jurassic carbonate section presents bedding dips that fan from steeply dipping to gently dipping, away from the diapir. Three unconformities are present in this section and a reworked carbonate breccia, interpreted to be from the diapir lid, is visible in the steeply-dipping units near the diapir contact.

• Depart to Praia Paredes de Vitória

• Azeche Mine Section

• Sra. Da Vitória Headland Section

• Lunch at Praia Paredes de Vitória

• Praia das Pedras Negras section

• Praia das Conchas section

• Nazaré headland

• Hotel at Alcobaça

• Thermal SPA

• Evening presentation 

• Dinner at Hotel

On the third day participants will inspect the São Pedro de Moel Diapir. This includes observing a superb example of an exhumed paleo oil field (Azeche Mine and Pedra Negras) trapped in upturned Cretaceous sandstones and sealed against a sub-vertical salt diapir wall, where a J-Hook unconformity can be observed.

Also includes exposures of a topographic depression associated with salt dissolution at Senhora da Vitória headland, where Neogene sediments were depositing on top of a collapsed salt rooftop. Additionally, slumped and folded lower Jurassic carbonates adjacent to the eastern flank will be observed at Praia da Concha.

• Depart to Santa Cruz

• Santa Cruz Northern section

• Lunch at Praia da Física

• Santa Cruz Southern section (Praia do Guincho to Praia Formosa)

• São Martinho do Porto headland section

• Evening presentation 

• Dinner at Alcobaça

• Hotel at Alcobaça

On this day participants will work along a coastal section crossing the Santa Cruz Diapir. This includes the observation of both internal composition, structure, and deformation of the diapir (folding and faulting), as well as the external structuring of the adjacent sedimentary sequences.

The diapir flanks present features such as granulation seams, faults, and natural hydrocarbon accumulations, as well as different types of halokinetic unconformities (J-hook and ‘flap-onlap unconformity’).

The day will end at the western flank of Caldas da Rainha-Óbidos Diapir in São Martinho do Porto, where it is possible to observe several halokinetic sequences in the Upper Jurassic sequence. Here, the fossiliferous limestones and sandstones near the diapir contact are steeply dipping and fan away into gently dipping red sandstones and grey marls, where it is possible to identity 5 five angular unconformities, that limit 6 Halokinetic Sequences

• Depart to Rio Maior

• Salinas de Rio Maior

• Portela da Teira Sill

• Alcobertas Fault weld along Rio Maior - Porto de Mós diapir

• Lunch at Serra dos Candeeiros

• Drive to Santiago do Cacém

• CAMP and base salt Dolomites at outcrops at Aldeia de Chãos

• Drive to Albufeira

• Hotel at Albufeira

On the fifth day participants will visit the man-made Salinas de Rio Maior (salt flats). Here, where the salt body reaches a maximum width of 1 km, the brine extracted from an ancient well is left to evaporate on shallow man-made limestone-floored salt flats.

Afterwards the team will observe with the fault welding along the NNE–SSW trending Rio Maior-Porto de Mós salt wall that extends for around 15 km N-S.

On the eastern flank Kimmeridgian–Tithonian clastics and volcanic sills are exposed in the zone near the TECNOVIA Quarry and, further north, there is a major fault welding zone with a large component of sinistral strike-slip deformation along the salt wall, as well as down-to-the-east extension.

During lunch it will be possible to observe the western flank of the diapir wall which consists of a 4 km-wide, gently upturned, zone of Candeeiros Formation limestones of Middle Jurassic age.

After lunch the group will drive to Santiago do Cacém to observe pre-salt sequence, the base of the Dagorda evaporite sequence with “platty dolomites” (finely laminated dolomites intercalated with gypsum) with intercalated CAMP (volcanic).

After visiting this outcrop at Aldeia de Chãos, the team will drive to Albufeira where will be staying at an hotel near the sea and adjacent to the Albufeira Diapir.

• Drive to Loulé

• Visit Tech Salt Mine

• Lunch at Loulé

• Drive to Hotel

• Summary meeting at Hotel

• Dinner at Albufeira

• Hotel at Albufeira

On the sixth day the group will drive to Loulé to visit the Tech Salt Mine within Loulé Diapir. Here, participants will examine the internal composition of a salt diapir, the different types of evaporites, shale, marls and sandstone stringers, understand the formation of folding and boudinage styles and patterns, identify brittle faulting, shear zones and igneous dykes, and observe gas blowout structures.

In the afternoon the group will gather at the hotel to discuss intra-salt structures on seismic and well data and compare these with the structures observed during the morning at the Loulé Salt Mine.

• Drive to Loulé

• Visit Tech Salt Mine

• Lunch at Loulé

• Outcrop at Praia da Baleeira

• Dinner at Albufeira

• Hotel at Albufeira

On the seventh day the group will return to Loulé Salt mine, to discuss origin of geo technical issues than can arise during the drilling and development stage of production wells drilled through salt structures, as discussed during the previous day summary meeting.

After lunch at Loulé, the team will drive back to Albufeira to observe the Marina de Albufeira section at Praia da Baleeira where cap rock formation processes and overturned flaps geometries will be discussed.

• Walk to Praia dos Arrifes

• Coastal section at Praia dos Arrifes

• Drive to Lisbon

• Hotel in Lisbon

On the last day of the field course the group will walk along the coastal area of Praia dos Arrifes, where it is possible to observe the Southern flank of Albufeira Diapir outcropping with near vertical lower Cretaceous strata truncated by an angular unconformity onlapped by Miocene strata.

After lunch at Praia dos Arrifes, the group will drive back to Lisbon where the field course will end with a wrap up dinner overlooking the city.