Sand, salt, and models: The legacy of Bruno Vendeville

Bruno Vendeville (1961–2022) was the foremost practitioner of analog modeling applied to the field of salt tectonics, with his work providing and promoting significant advances in our understanding of this field over more than three decades. Bruno and his collaborators contributed major works in: the mechanics of salt-related deformation; the key processes of extensional, contractional, loading-induced, and strike-slip salt tectonics; the drivers and patterns of gravity-driven, linked systems of salt-detached deformation; and the structural style and evolution of specific salt basins. In this Special Issue devoted to his legacy, we offer a series of papers that build on his foundational work and honor his critical role in advancing the theory and application of salt tectonics. • Bruno Vendeville was the foremost practioner of analog modeling of salt structures. • We summarize his fundamental contributions to the understanding of salt tectonics. • This Special Issue contains fourteen papers that honor Bruno's legacy.