Abstract: Into the Unknown: A History of the Discovery of the Giant Fields of the Western Mississippi Fan Foldbelt, Gulf of Mexico

ver the last 15 years, several giant petroleum accumulations have been discovered in the Mississippi Fan foldbelt, deep- water Gulf of Mexico. In the mid 1980s, initial work was driven by interest in the nature of sections at the edge of, and immedi- ately inboard of, the Sigsbee Escarpment. Outboard and counter-regional dip beneath an allochthonous salt canopy was recognized in early speculative 2D seismic transects.