## 1 Introduction  
Salt tectonics play a key role in hydrocarbon exploration worldwide (e.g., Gulf of Mexico, Campos Basin, Lower Congo Basin, Persian Gulf, North Sea), not only by favoring the formation of effective seals but also by controlling depositional processes and, subsequently, reservoir properties [1; 2; 3]. Additionally, the need for a reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere drew attention to the possibility of geological storage of carbon dioxide in specific formations, including salts and salt structures [4; 5]. Salt structures have been extensively discussed in the literature, regarding the mechanics of salt flow, diapiric growth and their effects on passive margin evolution [6; 7; 8]. Shallow and deep water systems of mixed siliciclastics and carbonates have been studied by many researchers [7; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14] and, to a lesser degree, pure carbonates systems have also been studied [15]. Various salt-tectonic structures, such as salt pillows, salt anticlines, salt walls and stocks, salt sheets and canopies, are identified in outcrop and subsurface data. The mechanism and the driving forces for the formation of these structures and diapiric growth may involve extensional, contractional forces governed by the regional tectonic regime, or may be controlled by purely halokinetic processes. Salt pillows and anticlines can form by halokines, growing purely by gravitational forces, or either by contractional folding or in the cores of normal fault rollovers [3; 16]. Three modes are involved in the formation of the aforementioned geometries: reactive, active and passive diapir piercement, depending on the regional tectonic regime [2; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [22; 23] distinguished four models describing the advance mechanism of salt sheets and canopies: (a) extrusive advance, where a salt spreads in the surface without any roof; (b) open toe advance, where a part of the salt is partially buried by a roof; (c) thrust advance, where a buried sheet advances along with its roof in the hanging wall of a thrust (common pattern in foreland basin settings, as with the one in the Ionian zone, Greece); and (d) salt wing intrusion, where a wedge of salt is emplaced along a stratigraphic horizon or thin layer in the flanking in situ rock. In order to analyze the effect of salt uprise on the geometrical and sedimentological features of the overburden, the regional stratigraphic sequences can be distinguished in three categories: (a) pre-kinematic sequences, (b) syn-kinematic sequences and (c) post-kinematic sequences. In salt pillows and anticlines, pre-kinematic sequences tend to maintain their initial thickness, while syn-kinematic sequences are thin close to salt crests forming on lap structures with the underlying pre-kinematic sequences [24]. According to [PERSON] et al. [25], strata geometries close to salt walls range from halokinetic sequences to megaflaps. Halokinetic sequences are described as localized (<1 km wide) successions of growth strata that form as charge folds. The controlling factor of their geometry is the interplay between the salt-rise rate and the sediment-accumulation rate [26; 27]. Stacked halokinetic sequences form tabular and tapered composite halokinetic sequences [28]. Megaflaps have been defined as panels of deep minibasin strata that extend far up the sides of steep diapirs or their equivalent welds [6; 29; 30]. In all cases, the post-kinematic sequences are marked by unconformity surfaces pointing at the cease of salt uprise. The present study focuses on a key area of NW Greece, since it forms part of an overturned 'rim syncline' adjacent to a salt diapir wall. Extensional and compressional tectonics evolved in the area during the geological record, and combined with the presence of a thick evaporitic succession established a complex configuration that involved reactive and active diapirism.