Jakarta06-PG-31

PROCEEDINGS, JAKARTA2006 INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCES

CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Jakarta, August 14 16, 2006
THE CENOZOIC EVOLUTION OF THE LARIANG AND KARAMA REGIONS, NORTH
MAKASSAR BASIN, WESTERN SULAWESI, INDONESIA
Stephen J Calvert *
Robert Hall**

SUMMARY
The Lariang and Karama regions of western
Sulawesi, an area of approximately 10,000 km2,
were the subject of a field-based investigation with
the aim of understanding the Cenozoic evolution of
the eastern Makassar Strait.
Western Sulawesi was influenced by rifting in the
Makassar Strait to the west and the collision of
continental, ophiolitic and island arc fragments to
the east. The timing of these events has been widely
debated and it has been suggested that Neogene
collisions in Sulawesi caused inversion in Borneo.
Based on the integration of field, biostratigraphic
and remote sensing data, a stratigraphy has been
developed and mapped for the onshore region,
providing a new and significant insight into the
evolution of the North Makassar Basin. Detailed
sedimentary facies analyses combined with
information from microfossil assemblages allowed
interpretation
of
Cenozoic
environments.
Petrographic analysis identified provenance trends
in the Neogene successions.
The oldest dated Cenozoic sediments are marine
and record a transgression in the Middle Eocene. As
the area subsided, late Eocene carbonates developed
on fault block highs that were eventually covered by
Oligocene and Miocene mudstones. It was not until
the Late Miocene that significant coarse clastics
were again deposited on the shelf. From the Late
Pliocene, deformation and uplift changed the
tectonic setting from a passive margin to a foreland
basin setting.
Field mapping together with the interpretation of
vintage onshore seismic data has enabled a

*
**

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company Pty Ltd

SE Asia Research Group, Department of Geology,
Royal Holloway University of London

structural interpretation of the onshore region.

Offshore seismic data has further constrained the
geological model and structural styles. Onshore oil
seeps indicate that key elements of a petroleum
system exist in this frontier region. A report by
BPM in the late 1940s considered the region to be
the second most prospective in Sulawesi after
Buton.

INTRODUCTION
Before this work was carried out, no single
geological study had previously focussed on the
entire Lariang and Karama region. The region was
previously mentioned in publically available
geological reviews (Hundling, 1942; Beltz, 1944;
van Bemmelen 1949; Hamilton 1979; Kartaadiputra
et al. 1982), but it was GRDC (Geological Research
and Development Centre, Indonesia) who first
published geological reports with differing
stratigraphies on different parts of the study area
(Hadiwijoyo et al., 1993; Ratman and Atmawinata,
1993;
Sukamto,
1973).
The
stratigraphy
summarized here is a significant revision of these
previous works. It is based on fieldwork carried out
in 1996, 1997 as part of a PhD at the University of
London, and in 2001 as proprietary work for Unocal
(Calvert, 2000; Calvert and Terry, 2001; Calvert
and Hall, 2003). Since the completion of the
onshore work, offshore seismic data has revealed a
series of highly prospective structures which have
not yet been tested (Fraser et al., 2003).

Paleogene Synrift to Postrift Toraja Group.

The Mesozoic basement is unconformably overlain
by the Toraja Group, up to 3500m thick and
comprising two formations, the mariginal marine /
terrestrial Kalumpang Formation and the more
extensive marine Budungbudung Formation. The

lower parts of the group were deposited in NE-SW

trending graben and half-graben formed during a
period of rift-related extension. Paleogene halfgraben have been interpreted from onshore seismic
lines (Calvert and Hall, 2003) and field mapping
shows that the Toraja Group terminates in zones
oriented NW-SE (see map in Calvert, 2000 or
Calvert and Hall, 2003). These zones are most
likely to be complex accommodation (transfer)
zones (sensu Gibbs 1984).
During the Late Eocene there were many localized
limestone shoals across both the Lariang and
Karama regions indicating a rise in relative sea level
as active rifting ceased. Some of the limestone
shoals were deposited on tops of fault blocks
(Figure 1, horst blocks on seismic line, sensu Moss
and Chambers 2000). Thermal subsidence
continued and the half-graben were buried beneath
mudstone on a now passive margin. By the midOligocene, mudstone was being deposited in an
outer neritic shelf environment that was only
marginally deeper than that required for shelf
carbonate accumulation (Norvick and Pile, 1976),
i.e. 200m or less. Subsidence continued through the
Miocene to Early Pliocene with deposition of the
Lisu Formation in a setting broadly similar to that
of the Budungbudung Formation.
Postrift Lisu Formation
The 2000m-thick late Early Miocene to Early
Pliocene Lisu Formation is a succession of
interbedded mudstone, greywacke and pebbly
greywacke. From the late Early Miocene to early
Late Miocene mudstone was deposited on a shallow
marine shelf that extended across the whole study
area, an environment that had been in place since
the Late Paleogene. Coarse volcaniclastic debris
and thin tuff beds in the central Lariang region
show that there was some mid-Miocene volcanic
activity to the east. During the Late Miocene there
was a substantial input of coarse sediment
indicating increased relief to the south and east of
the study area. Sand was deposited by gravity flows
onto the shelf, and some was derived from a
volcanic center to the south of the Karama region.
Fission track and K-Ar dating of igneous rocks east
and south of the Lariang and Karama regions
(Bellier et al., 1998; Bergman et al., 1996) show
that uplift and magmatism was occurring in these
areas. However, there is no evidence for a great
elevation or large input of sediment derived from an
orogenic belt. Sections in the Lariang region remain
mud-dominated, which may indicate some
basement control on subsidence.

Foreland Basin deposits of the Pasangkayu

Formation
The 20003500m-thick latest Early Pliocene to
Pleistocene Pasangkayu Formation is dominated by
conglomerate and sandstone beds, with an increase
in the proportion of mudstones nearer the present
day coastline. The formation is unconformable on
Mesozoic and older Cenozoic rocks and is
unconformably overlain by Quaternary alluvium
and limestone. The conglomerates are the product
of deposition in alluvial fans that bordered and
inter-fingered with alluvial plain and marine
deposits. The alluvial fans reached the present day
coastline in the Karama region by the Late Pliocene
(interpretation of well Karama-1S). Alluvial fan
deposition was restricted to a valley in the Lariang
region, and sediment transport, dispersal and
distribution reflects control by the major basement
lineaments that can be traced offshore (Calvert and
Hall, 2005). Deformation in front of the present day
mountains has controlled the deposition of these
sediments in the Lariang region. Throughout, these
sediments are fundamentally different to the older
Cenozoic stratigraphy and record the erosion of a
mountainous belt to the east of the study area. They
record the oldest Cenozoic contractional
deformational event to affect the Lariang and
Karama regions. Deformation was thick-skinned,
involving basement, and thrust faults cut through
the Lisu Formation, juxtaposing Cretaceous
basement with Cenozoic strata. There is also
evidence for thin-skinned deformation including
localized detachment folds that plunge away from
the uplifted basement highs. As the region to the
east rose rapidly, the long standing Late Paleogene
Neogene shelfal environment with marine
sedimentation ceased and a major regional angular
unconformity developed. This is probably the same
unconformity interpreted on the PAC 201 offshore
seismic line (Bergman et al., 1996). Large quantities
of coarse clastic sediments of the Plio-Pleistocene
Pasangkayu Formation were carried west to be
deposited in alluvial fans of foreland basins at the
deformation
front.
Deformation
continued
throughout the Plio-Pleistocene. Existing folds
above the Paleogene half-graben were tightened and
elevated.
CONCLUSION
Two major unconformities were identified during
the four years onshore study of the Lariang and
Karama regions of Western Sulawesi one
between Upper Cretaceous forearc deposits and
Eocene shelf sediments, and one between Lower

Pliocene shelf sediments and Plio-Pleistocene synorogenic sediments. The synrift Eocene sediments
were deposited in graben and half-graben in both
marine and marginal marine environments. The
post-rift subsidence phase had started by the late
Eocene and carbonate shoals and shelf mudstones
covered this margin of the Makassar Strait. It was
not until the Pliocene that the character of
sedimentation across the whole of Western, Central
and Eastern Sulawesi changed significantly. Uplift
and erosion was followed by the deposition of
coarse clastics derived from an orogenic belt to the
east of the study area. To the west of the orogenic
belt there was syn-orogenic sedimentation,
inversion and folding above Paleogene half-graben,
detachment folding and thrus faulting, and the
development of intra-basinal unconformities and
mini-basins. Some of the folds, which form gentle
hills, have in the past been the main structural
prospects (e.g. Norvick and Pile, 1976;
Chamberlain and Seago, 1995). These hills are the
onshore expression of similar structures that cover a
much larger prospective area offshore (Figure 1).
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Figure 1 - BOTTOM RIGHT - Schematic depositional model for the Toraja Group derived from the onshore fieldwork - note the development of limestone
on the fault block highs (sensu Moss and Chambers, 2000). LEFT Tilted fault blocks have subsequently been interpreted on offshore seismic
data (Aini et al., 2005). TOP RIGHT - Pliocene folds onshore that have deformed the Miocene section (yellow unit) have been imaged offshore
with detachments in the Oligocene and Early Miocene post rift mudstones.