The Albufeira Salt Diapir is an active structure located west of the city of Albufeira, at the intersection of the Baleeira faults, and in contact with Middle and Upper Jurassic limestones, respectively to the south and east.

Halokinesis, a word that means movement of saline rocks,  is responsible for the dense system of faults and folds and fractures in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous rocks on the periphery of the diapir.

With an approximately East-West orientation due to the different hardness of the rocks, the core of the Albufeira diapir was excavated as a result of the erosion of softer saline rocks (differential erosion) giving rise to a so-called typhonic valley.