The main focus of my research is salt tectonics, particularly kinematic models for evolution and growth of salt structures. My early work in the field included the co-development of the salt glacier model for the emplacement of allochthonous salt sheets (Fletcher and others, 1995) and extensive work on salt structures in the Paradox Basin, Utah (e.g., Hudec, 1995). Work in the Paradox Basin continues, but more recently I have been studying linked extensional/contractional systems detached on salt and the effects of basement faulting on overlying salt tectonism. Martin Jackson and I are coordinating development of the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory Interactive Atlas of Salt Tectonics, a web-based compendium of salt structural styles and mechanics. The atlas includes examples from field exposures, subsurface data, and physical and numerical models.

A second theme in my research has been the evolution and growth of normal fault systems, based on both 3-D seismic data and outcrop studies. While at Exxon I was heavily involved in a project studying the effects of small-scale faulting on reservoir segmentation in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and I currently have several students analyzing complex fault patterns above salt diapirs in the Paradox Basin. The goal of this research is to predict the point at which fault relays are breached and then to use this information to develop tools for predicting fault compartmentalization from subsurface data.

B.A. Geology, Amherst College, 1983

M.S. Geology, University of Southern California, 1987

Ph.D. Geology, University of Wyoming, 1990

Assistant Professor, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 1997–2000

Research Scientist, Exxon Production Research, Houston, TX, 1989–1997

Fletcher, R. C., Hudec, M. R., and Watson, I. A., 1995, Salt glacier and composite sediment-salt glacier models for the emplacement and early burial of allochthonous salt sheets, in Jackson, M. P. A., Roberts, D. G., and Snelson, S., eds., Salt tectonics: a global perspective: AAPG Memoir 65, p. 77–108.

Hudec, M. R., 1995, The Onion Creek salt diapir: an exposed diapir fall structure in the Paradox basin, Utah, in Travis, C. J., Harrison, H., Hudec, M. R., Vendeville, B. C., Peel, F. J., and Perkins, B. F., eds., Salt, sediment and hydrocarbons: Gulf Coast Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Sixteenth Annual Research Conference, p. 125–134.

Hudec, M. R., 1992, Mesozoic structural and metamorphic history of the central Ruby Mountains metamorphic core complex, Nevada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 104, p. 1086–1100.

Outstanding Instructor Award, Exxon Production Research Company, 1993

Michael R. Hudec, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Bureau of Economic Geology
The University of Texas at Austin
University Station, Box X
Austin, Texas 78713-8924
E-mail:
Telephone: 512-471-1428