Salt depositional configuration exerted a fundamental control on both extensional and contractional deformation in the south-central Pyrenees. We divide the area into three domains and suggest that these domains are inherited from the original configuration of the Triassic Keuper salt basin. The Northern and Southern Domains are salt-diapir provinces with complex Mesozoic growth histories, whereas the Central Domain separating them has no diapirs and simpler Mesozoic isopachs. We use these patterns to interpret the Northern and Southern Domains as transported salt basins that were originally separated by the Central Horst, on which salt was thinner.

During Dogger to mid-Cenomanian rifting, the Southern Salt Basin was an interior basin, isolated from deformation in the rift axis, whereas the Northern Salt Basin hosted an extensional breakaway at the updip end of the axial rift. During Pyrenean shortening, regions with preexisting salt structures were preferentially reactivated, whereas the stronger Central Horst remained relatively rigid. Eventually the sedimentary cover of the Southern Pyrenees was translated southwards and the connection with the original basement structure was lost.

We tested our hypotheses using physical models. We confirmed that shortening a network of preexisting salt pillows could generate structures like the dome-and-basin pattern observed in the Southern Domain, and that it is possible to shorten salt basins on either side of a central horst while leaving sediments above the horst relatively undeformed.

盐的沉积构造对中南部比利牛斯山脉的伸展变形和收缩变形都起到了根本性的控制作用。我们将该区域划分为三个区域，并建议这些区域是从三叠纪库珀盐盆地的原始构造继承而来的。北域和南域是中生代生长历史复杂的盐沼省，而分隔它们的中域则没有底栖动物和中生代等速线。我们使用这些模式将北部和南部区域解释为最初由中央霍斯特分开的运盐盆地，在该盆地上盐较稀。

在Dogger到西诺曼尼亚中期裂谷期间，南部盐盆地是一个内部盆地，与裂谷轴的变形隔离开来，而北部盐盆地则在轴向裂谷的上端处有伸展的脱离。在比利牛斯山缩短期间，具有先前盐结构的区域优先被重新激活，而较强的中央霍斯特仍然保持相对刚性。最终，南比利牛斯山脉的沉积层向南平移，与原始地下室结构的联系也消失了。

我们使用物理模型检验了我们的假设。我们证实，缩短先前存在的盐枕的网络可能会产生类似在南域观察到的圆顶和盆地形式的结构，并且有可能缩短中央地带两边的盐盆地，而使沉积物相对地高于地带未变形。