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Constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Bird’s Head, West Papua,

Indonesia

Conference Paper · May 2009

DOI: 10.29118/IPA.556.09.G.139

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PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Thirty-Third Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2009

CONSTRAINTS ON THE TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF THE BIRD’S HEAD, WEST PAPUA,

INDONESIA

John Decker*
Steven C. Bergman**
Philip A. Teas*
Peter Baillie***
Daniel L. Orange*

ABSTRACT counterclockwise by 50º-90º along a dextral strike-

The Bird’s Head terrane of West Papua, Indonesia
has a poorly understood geologic origin and
tectonic evolution. As recently as a decade ago, few
data were available to constrain tectonic models for
the evolution of east Indonesia. Delineation drilling
and extensive coring of the Permian to Paleocene
section of the super giant Tangguh gas field in the
late 1990’s provides important geological data that
must be considered in any tectonic reconstruction of
the greater Bird’s Head. The most critical
observation is that the Tangguh field stratigraphic
section, including age, thickness, facies, hiatuses,
and key markers, contrast strongly to the previously
well-known Kembelangan Group stratigraphy of the
Bird’s Head derived from outcrops and regional
wells. The Mesozoic section of the Bintuni platform
is thin, with most of Mesozoic time represented by a
hiatus. At Tangguh, clean quartzose sandstone of
Middle Jurassic age unconformably overlies
Permian clastics, coals and carbonates. In adjacent
areas, the Triassic section is generally present. Our
interpretation is that the Tangguh Middle Jurassic
reservoir sandstones were deposited in an incised
valley that had cut out the entire Early Jurassic and
Triassic interval. The clean quartzose Middle
Jurassic sandstones of the incised valley fill are
clearly cratonally derived and the strata are
observed to stack or transgress eastward (present
geography) toward their cratonal source. Currently,
the area east of the Bintuni platform is
Cenderawasih Bay and not a valid candidate for a
cratonal source for the Middle Jurassic Tangguh
reservoir sandstones. We speculate that Tangguh
and the Bintuni platform incised valley have been
detached from the NW Shelf of Western Australia,
translated northward at least 500 km. and rotated
slip fault system during the Late Neogene to its
current position.
INTRODUCTION
Debate about the tectonic evolution of the Bird’s
Head of New Guinea (Figure 1) has been ongoing
for decades and will likely continue for decades
longer. The data are simply too limited or not well
enough understood to differentiate among
contrasting interpretations. This paper attempts to
build a foundation of facts and reasonable
assumptions that permit us to eliminate alternatives
and focus on the more plausible interpretations. In
this paper, we summarize some of the key
geological observations relating to the tectonics of
the Bird’s Head with special attention to Mesozoic
well penetrations in the Bintuni Bay area.
CURRENT SETTING
The current plate tectonic setting of the Bird’s Head
is defined by GPS measurements and earthquake
focal mechanism data. GPS data from Stevens et al.
(2002) show that the Bird’s Head is currently
moving predominantly with the Pacific Plate
(Caroline sub-plate) at 7.5–8.0 cm/yr in a direction
of 252° relative to northern Australia (Figure 2). We
believe that the available data strongly suggest that
the Bird’s Head was a contiguous part of the
Australian continent in pre-Neogene times. We do
not have any direct measurements indicating when
the Bird’s Head began moving with the Pacific
Plate, but timing of deformational events
surrounding the Bird’s Head allow us to speculate
that it has only been moving with the Pacific Plate
for the past few million years.

* Black Gold Energy LLC Examination of Global Centroid Moment Tensor

** Shell International Exploration and Production Inc
*** TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company
data from earthquakes since 1977 (Ekstrom, 2006)
Back to Menu
shows a pattern consistent with the GPS data and
adds additional clarity to the location and nature of
plate margins (Figure 3). Key observations from the
earthquake data are:
• The central area of the Bird’s Head is
remarkably free of earthquakes and is
considered to be internally stable today. It has
behaved as a relatively rigid block compared to
the surrounding mobile belts through Mesozoic
and Tertiary time, probably longer.
• The northern margin of the Bird’s Head, with a
long history of left-lateral strike slip along the
Sorong fault system, is now a compressional or
transpressional margin dominated by thrust
focal mechanisms. Farther to the east, in the
Yapen Island and North Papua areas, plate
margin strain is likely partitioned into a thrust
component and a left-lateral strike slip
component (Waschsmuth and Kunst, 1986).
The main trace of the Sorong Fault is currently
aseismic.
• The southern boundary of the Bird’s Head and
extending northeastward into New Guinea is a
broad and diffuse left-lateral strike slip fault
zone and is the likely new location of the
Pacific-Australia plate boundary defined by the
GPS data (Stevens et al., 2002).
The western boundary of the Bird’s Head is
predominantly compressional associated with
thrusting in the Seram fold-and-thrust belt (Teas et
al., 2009, this volume). The seismic stability of the
Bird’s Head is likely a consequence of a relative
rigid pre-Tertiary basement section underlying the
central Bird’s Head. Although completely
surrounded with mobile belts, deformed zones, and
fault zones, the stratigraphy of the central Bird’s
Head is only weekly deformed. Fraser (1993) called
this stable region the West Irian Micro Continent.
Pigram and Panggabean (1984) refer to it the
Western Irian Jaya Microcontinent. We will simply
refer to the stable zone as the Bird’s Head block.
MOBILE BELTS AND SHEAR ZONES
The timing of deformation surrounding the Bird’s
Head block is very young; almost entirely within
the past 10 Ma and largely still active today, as the
earthquake data attest. These mobile belts and fault
zones provide invaluable insight to the timing and
sense of motion of the Bird’s Head block.
Seram
The Seram fold-and-thrust belt and the Seram
trough accretionary complex form the western
boundary of the Bird’s Head block. The upper, and
presumably oldest, thrust sheet consists of obducted
ophiolite on the west side of Seram Island. Linthout
et al. (1997), has projected timing for the obduction
using a variety of geochronometric techniques as
beginning at about 9 Ma (early Late Miocene).
Subsequent uplift and exposure of the ophiolite was
completed by 5.5 Ma at the end of the Miocene
(Figure 4), the cooling age of anatectic granites
below the ophiolite thrust. Lower, presumably
younger, thrust sheets have been encountered in the
Oseil wells on south-eastern Seram. These wells
encountered an Upper Triassic section structurally
overlying Upper Jurassic strata. Marine sedimentary
rocks as young as latest Miocene (NN11/N17 in
Oseil 1 well, approximately 5 to 6 Ma) are involved
in the thrusting and thus providing a maximum age
for overthrusting at this location. The leading edge
of the Seram accretionary complex involves rocks
of Pleistocene age (Pairault et al., 2003) and is
active today (Teas et al., 2009, this volume). We
consider deformation to have begun sometime prior
to 5.5 Ma and is currently active as indicated by a
predominance of compressional earthquake focal
mechanisms.
Lengguru Fold Belt
The Lengguru foldbelt (LFB) (Visser and Hermes,
1962; Sutriyono and Hill, 2002) was formed
following the deposition of the Kais Limestone
(Brash et al., 1991) and is therefore no older than
Late Miocene (about 5-10 Ma). The demise of the
relatively stable Kais platform and the beginning of
deposition of muds of the Klasafet Formation is the
key event, regionally signaling change from a stable
tectonic situation that began in Late Cretaceous
time, to a more mobile and tectonically active
Bird’s Head. The transition, however is
diachronous, both locally and regionally across the
Bird’s Head and difficult to resolve more precisely
than Late Miocene. Reconstructions of the foldbelt
by Kendrick et al. (2003) show that the Late
Miocene to Early Pliocene Klasafet and Steenkool
Formations were derived from the north and
extended unimpeded far to the east over and (we
infer) beyond the location of the LFB (Figure 5).
This is consistent with vitrinite reflectance (%Ro)
values from the Kais in outcrop that show elevated
%Ro values that are likely due to sedimentary burial
of the Kais Limestone, but could alternatively be
due to thrust loading. Inliers of Steenkool
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Formation have also been reported within the LFB
(Pieters et al., 1983). Drainage reversal did not
occur until the Late Pliocene (<3.6 Ma) when the
LFB became a source of sediment to the west.
Our interpretation is that the collapse of the Kais
platform and the transition to Klasafet clastics in the
Lengguru area occurred around the end of the Late
Miocene, about 5 Ma, perhaps a little earlier.
Thrusting, uplift, and erosion in the LFB did not
start until around 3.6 Ma at the beginning of the
Late Pliocene when the reversal of drainage
occurred with sediments shed to the west. During
this time, the Bintuni basin formed, with carbonates
reefs backstepping to the northwest as the
subsidence progressed to the southeast (Figure 6).
The compressional deformation probably ended
sometime in the Pleistocene, 1.0-1.8 Ma, based on
the degree of fluvial dissection that has occurred in
the foldbelt and the establishment of a fairly mature
drainage system. Today, the LFB is cut by normal
faults and the location is dominated by extensional
earthquake focal mechanisms. The LFB is widely
believed to be the load which produced the Bintuni
Foreland basin. Our view is that the Pliocene
Bintuni clastic basin is not a foreland basin at all
(similar to conclusion by Hobson et al., 1997), but
for different reasons because the basin formed first
and basin fill sediments were later deformed into
the LFB.
The Misool-Onin-Kumawa Ridge
The Misool-Onin-Kumawa Ridge (MOKR) of
Pairault et al. (2003), also known as the Kumawa-
Onin/Misool-Anticlinorium (Fraser et al., 1993) and
the Misool-Onin Ridge is a long broad
anticlinorium that extends from the Tarera-Aiduna
fault on the southeast to the Sorong fault on the
northwest. It roughly parallels the Seram trough and
accretionary complex (Figure 7).
The uplift started and ended in the Pliocene as
Pairault et al. (2003) have observed strata as young
as Early Pliocene are folded, with the folds being
onlapped by Late Pliocene strata. Pairault et al.
(2003) therefore place the age of the unconformity
at approximately 4 Ma. Pairault et al. (2003) map
this unconformity north to Misool Island where it
crops out on the north side of the island and can be
traced on seismic data continuously to the Salawati
Basin. Data from proprietary well reports, indicate
that rocks as young as N19 (Early Pliocene, about
5.3-3.6 Ma) are encountered below the
unconformity and rocks of ?N21–N22 age (about
3.4-1.8 Ma) occur above the unconformity. Strata
between, and perhaps including parts of, N19 and
N21 at a minimum appear to be missing.
A recent re-evaluation of the TBA-1X well
micropaleonological data indicate that rocks as
young as 4.4 Ma are present below and rocks as old
as 3.4 Ma are present above the unconformity. Our
interpretation is that the MOKR and Misool-
Salawati Intra-Pliocene unconformity are one and
the same event and that uplift and erosion can be
confined to the approximately 3.4–4.0 Ma time
interval, consistent with the conclusion of Pairault
et al. (2003). This timing places the MOKR almost
entirely earlier than the Lengguru deformation
discussed above. We speculate that the northern
source of clastic sediment burying the Kais prior to
uplift and drainage reversal in the Lengguru area
was, in part, from the MOKR-Salawati uplift and
erosion.
Kemum Block
The Kemum block has a core of Paleozoic meta-
sediments and Permian-Triassic granitic rocks
(Visser and Hermes, 1962). Kais Limestone and the
overlying Sekau Formation are tilted along the
south side of the block (Pieters et al., 1990) and the
base-Kais unconformity and Sirga Formations are
exposed in a spectacular dip slope. Uplift must
therefore have occurred sometime post-Kais, 5-10
Ma, but could be much younger.
Sorong Fault
The northern boundary of the Bird’s Head block has
been, until recently, a left-lateral strike-slip fault
zone with multiple fault strands and zones of
transtension and transpression Charlton (1996).
Currently, the main strands are seismically inactive
and no modern transcurrent activity is noted on
seismic lines that cross the fault. Figure 8 is a
seismic line across the Kofiau basin showing the
post-Kais growth of this transtensional basin. The
transition from the stable Kais platform to rapid
pinnacle reef growth and initiation of Kais burial,
we believe, marks the onset of transtensional
movement along the Sorong fault. Burial history
modeling and dating of carbonate reefs in the
Salawati basin (Livingston, 1992; Livingston et al.,
1992) indicate that the Kais collapse in this area
occurred between 6 and 7 Ma (Figure 8). This is
also a reasonable time to begin translation of the
Banggai-Sula terrane and Tomori basin from the
north side of the Bird’s Head westward as has been
proposed by Charlton (1996). He suggests that the
Tomori basin has been moved approximately 900
Back to Menu
km to the west at an average rate on 12 cm/year
over the past 7 Ma.
Cendrawasih Bay
One of the most poorly known areas of eastern
Indonesia and key to understanding the evolution of
the Bird’s Head is Cendrawasih Bay. Until 2007,
there were no modern multichannel seismic data
from the Bay and there are still no well data in the
region that penetrate deeper than the Pliocene. The
bay had been variously interpreted as being floored
by continental, oceanic, and transitional crust (Dow
and Hartono, 1982; Hamilton, 1979).
New non-exclusive exploration data collected by
TGS-NOPEC during 2007-2008 reveal much about
the stratigraphic and structural history of the area.
Figure 9 shows a 3D perspective diagram of the
general bathymetric features of Cendrawasih Bay.
The main observations are 1) the Cendrawasih Bay
contains a thick sedimentary section that thickens
progressively from west to east, and 2) the section
was deformed in a NW-SE trending foldbelt, that
appears to be actively forming today.
We have divided the sedimentary section into four
mapable units, each with distinctive characteristics
(Figure 10).
1. Pre refers to strata that were deposited prior to
initiation of Cendrawasih basin as a major
depocenter. This unit varies significantly across
the seismic dataset and includes bedded strata
and unbedded rock units, the bedded rocks
range from gentle open folds to highly-
deformed and are likely to correlate with the
Kembelangan or equivalent Mesozoic strata,
and with strata equivalent to the New Guinea
Limestone. Basement rocks are probably
gneisses and granites which are exposed to the
West on the Wandaman Peninsula and on
nearby islands.
2. Early refers to the first deposition in the new
basin. Early clastic sediment filled topographic
lows with progradation into the basin at least in
part from the NW. Carbonate reefs formed near
sea level on margins of highs (islands) and on
the tops as the highs subside below sea-level.
The Early section is commonly deformed
around the margins of the basin. The top of the
Early unit is a regional onlap surface for Mid
sediments. Based only on regional relationships,
we believe that the base of Early is the top Kais
Limestone and is therefore younger than 5-10
Ma. Early strata on the west side of the basin
are involved in significant east-vergent
thrusting (Figure 9). Guessing that the trusting
is the same age as and genetically related to
thrusting in the Lengguru foldbelt, although
opposite in vergence, we believe that the Early
strata were deposited between 5-3.6 Ma.
3. Mid is the section that displays the most rapid
growth in the basin center (now roots of
Waipoga foldbelt). Mid is characterized by
progressive fanning of seismic reflectors in the
clastic section reflecting progressive tilting,
deepening, and infilling of the basin. The rapid
clastic sedimentation caused cessation of reef
formation and burial of the carbonate highs in
the center of the basin. Back-stepping carbonate
pinnacle reefs continued to grow toward the
evolving basin margins where they are present
today. The water depth at the end of Mid is
probably the deepest in Cenderawasih Bay
evolution. Mid is post-east-vergent thrusting in
southeast Cendrawasih Bay.
4. Late is conformable with Mid but displays
considerably less fanning of seismic reflectors.
We consider this the basin-filling phase where
sedimentation exceeded subsidence, resulting in
basin shallowing. Sediment progradation was at
least in part from east and south. Late is
deformed and significantly uplifted on the south
into an east-west trending anticline. Late strata
are deformed in the Waipoga fold and thrust
belt that is active today. Late strata are also
deformed and uplifted along the south side of
Yapen Island. Late in the Tesoro H1 well is
Pleistocene in age. The H1 TDs in the Late
Pliocene and probably correlates with the Mid
strata but the correlation could not be made
with any confidence through the Waipoga fold
belt.
Horizon mapping is relatively simple in the middle
of the basin, but increasingly complicated near the
basin margins. Carbonate facies are time-
transgressive from oldest in the center of the basin
to modern reefs on the present day shelf;
particularly to the west. Compressive (or
transpressive) deformation occurs on all sides of the
basin and deformation effects all phases of
deposition.
Our suggested timing for key tectonic events
surrounding the stable Bird’s Head block is shown
graphically in Figure 10 and in map view in Figure
11. The compelling overall observation is that,
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although the central Bird’s Head is internally stable,
it is surrounded with mobile belts and tectonic
movements associated with global-scale plate
boundary systems.
BIRD’S HEAD BLOCK
The relatively stable region of the Bird’s Head is
underlain by a thin section of Mesozoic strata that
has not been deeply buried or strongly deformed.
The Mesozoic stratigraphic succession has been
completely penetrated, from the Tertiary to the
Permian, in over a dozen wells in the greater
Bintuni Bay area. Metamorphic and plutonic
basement rocks have been penetrated in a few wells
in the Bintuni area and several wells in the Salawati
basin region. We suspect that that the metamorphic
and granitic rocks are similar to those found in
outcrop of the Kemum block of the northern Bird’s
Head and represent rigid continental basement.
Tangguh
In the mid 1990’s ARCO discovered the Wiriagar
Deep and Vorwata (Figure 12) super giant gas
reservoirs in Bintuni Bay (Robertson, 1999; Keho
and Samsu, 2002; Marcou et al., 2004; Casarta et
al., 2004). Subsequent delineation of the find
included 3D seismic and an extensive drilling and
coring program which provided a wealth of new
information about the stratigraphic record in the
Bintuni Bay area from the Permian through much of
the Tertiary. Much of the data from Tangguh, the
name given to the greater Wiriagar and Vorwata
LNG project, remain proprietary to the operator, but
enough data have now been released to draw several
compelling conclusions.
Vorwata-2 (Figure 13) is a good well to illustrate
the stratigraphic and tectonic relationships within
the Mesozoic section of Bintuni Bay. In Vorwata-2,
as is the case for all the Wiriagar and Vorwata
wells, the Middle Jurassic Aalenian and Roabiba
Sandstone rest unconformably on fluvial
sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, and coals of the
Upper Permian; the Triassic and Lower Jurassic
strata are entirely missing (Marcou, et al., 2004).
The main reservoir sands at Tangguh are clean
quartzose sandstones deposited in shallow marine
environments as part of a regional transgression
during the Middle Jurassic (Casarta et al., 2004).
The rate of transgression accelerated into the Late
Jurassic resulting in deposition of predominantly
deeper water mudstone and calcareous siltstone.
The Lower Cretaceous section is largely missing at
Vorwata-2, as is the case throughout the Tangguh
area (Marcou, et al., 2004). The Late Cretaceous
represents a new cycle of deposition regionally in
Bintuni Bay with relatively continuous deposition
from the Campanian through the Tertiary. The total
Mesozoic section in the greater Tangguh area is less
than 500 meters thick and is commonly half that
amount.
Three key regional markers are represented in the
Vorwata-2 well and can that can be tracked
regionally throughout the Bintuni region.
1. The lowest is the major unconformity between
the Upper Permian and the Middle Jurassic.
This unconformity commonly displays slight
angular discordance on seismic lines and
represents about 70 million years of missing
section, a time period just longer than the entire
duration of the Tertiary. Ironically, the contact
is sometimes, if not commonly, difficult to pick
in the wells where shallow marine, estuarine
and perhaps fluvial Middle Jurassic sandstones
are deposited on Permian strata of similar facies
and rock properties.
2. One of the easiest markers to pick in Bintuni
wells is the Upper Jurassic Ayot Limestone of
Oxfordian (LJ9) age (Fraser et al., 1993).
Biostratigraphic data from wells throughout the
region confirms the LJ9 age and affirms the
chronostratigraphic synchronicity. We interpret
this unit, as did Fraser et al. (1993), to be a
critical point in the history of the Bintuni
region, marking the transition from cratonally-
derived quartz clastic deposition to carbonate
deposition, clastic starvation, and probably
subaerial exposure.
3. The third marker is near the base of the Upper
Cretaceous section and is well displayed in the
Vorwata-2 well and throughout the Tangguh
region as having a very high gamma ray log
signature and common abundant glauconite in
core and cutting samples. The green color of the
sandstone erroneously lead early well-site
geologists to believe that the sands were of
volcanic origin. The interval spans the time
from LJ1 to EK12, a duration of approximately
75 million years and is generally only about 10
meters thick. This unit is most easily interpreted
as a condensed section characterized by
shallow-marine mud and sand deposition. The
top of this interval is important regionally
because it marks the reintroduction of clastics to
the Bintuni area. It is also the most important
seismic horizon regionally and has been called
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base Cretaceous by Keho and Samsu (2002).
This horizon consistently mimics the underlying
Middle Jurassic Reservoir strata, which are
more difficult to seismically image.
Several significant observations and conclusions
can be drawn from the data at Tangguh.
1. The first is that the “Bintuni basin” of
Robertson (1999), which houses the main
Tangguh reservoir sandstone, is not a basinas
the term is commonly used, but can perhaps
better be described as a platformtype of
accumulation during most of Mesozoic time.
Mesozoic time on the Bintuni Platform was
dominated by non-deposition, erosion,
unconformities, shallow marine to fluvial
sedimentation with little or no accommodation
for the accumulation of a thick sedimentary
section. Not until late in the Late Cretaceous did
a proper basinform at Tangguh. Even today, the
Mesozoic of the Bintuni platform is immature
for hydrocarbon generation. A kitchen formed
to the east of the platform in post-Middle
Miocene times and that kitchen is the source the
gas at Tangguh. This Neogene basin is the most
appropriate use of the term “Bintuni basin” and
the concept most commonly used in the
literature.
2. The Mesozoic stratigraphy at Tangguh is
significantly different than the generally
recognized Mesozoic stratigraphic section of
the Bird’s Head, namely the Kembelangan
Group, defined in outcrops of the Lengguru
foldbelt and elsewhere in outcrops of the Bird’s
Head (Visser and Hermes, 1962). We restrict
our usage of the Kembelangan to the Lengguru
foldbelt where it was originally defined. The
Kembelangan stratigraphy is shown in Figure
14a and is almost the stratigraphic opposite of
the Tangguh stratigraphy. Where there is
deposition on the Bintuni platform, there is
missing section in the Kembelangan and vice
versa. Although we feel it inappropriate (as did
Fraser et al. 1993) to use Kembelangan
nomenclature for strata at Tangguh or in the
greater Bintuni area, we do feel that there is a
genetic link between Bintuni deposition and
Kembelangan deposition. Figure 14b shows our
view of stratigraphic relationships and genetic
linkage between Bintuni and Kembelangan
strata. The LFB occupies an area of weak crust
that was formerly the site of Jurassic rifting
along the Northwest Shelf of Australia. As
rifting commenced in Late Jurassic time, the
outboard Bintuni Platform became isolated and
sediment starved as cratonally-derived clastics
were deposited in the ever-deepening rift
graben. The Ayot limestone attests to the
starvation of the Bintuni platform. It was not
until Late Cretaceous times when clastic
deposition again developed in the Bintuni
platform.
3. The composition of the Middle Jurassic sands at
Tangguh and in the other wells of the Bintuni
platform strongly suggests a cratonic
provenance. As defined in numerous well
reports from the region, the Middle Jurassic
sands are generally very fine- to medium-
grained quartz arenites that are both
compositionally and texturally super-mature.
The depositional environment is generally
considered to be shallow marine, deltaic,
estuarine, or non-marine, and deposition is
considered to have taken place on a stable
continental margin during regional
transgression. Assuming the cratonic source is
indeed Australia, this poses a problem in that
there is currently no direct linkage from
Tangguh to the Australian craton. It is therefore
likely that the Bird’s Head and the reservoir
strata at Tangguh have been displaced from
their original depositional location.
4. A more speculative conclusion is our
interpretation that the Middle Jurassic reservoir
sands across the Bintuni platform were
deposited in an incised valley, defined by the
distribution of missing Lower Jurassic and
Triassic strata and coincides with the deposition
of high quality Middle Jurassic sandstone
reservoirs directly on the Permian. The exact
location of the incised valley is not well
constrained other than it coincides largely with
the current Bintuni Bay (Figure 16). Few wells
encounter Triassic strata on the Bird’s Head and
in those wells, the Middle Jurassic is generally
not present, either not deposited or subsequently
removed by erosion. Triassic strata are present
in outcrops that surround the Bintuni platform.
These areas include the LFB, the southern
Kemum block, Misool and Seram Islands. The
Bintuni platform is therefore unique and
requires a special explanation for the Triassic
section. Deep erosion of the continental margin
creating incised valleys during progradation in
the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic may have
locally cut out the Triassic section.
Transgressive sands later filled the incised
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valley in a back stepping fashion during Middle
Jurassic time (Figure 15).
5. The structures at Tangguh were formed during a
regional deformation in the Late Oligocene-
Early Miocene (Keho and Samsu, 2002). This
deformation caused a brief cessation of regional
carbonate platform deposition and introduced
quartz sands of the Sirga and Adi formations.
The deformation is clearly visible on seismic as
a slight angular unconformity truncating gentle
open folds prior to the beginning of Kais
Limestone deposition at the beginning of the
Miocene (Figure 16). The deformation is
generally believed to have ended by 25 Ma and
coincides with the final emplacement of
ophiolites in central West Papua and the
initiation of left-lateral strike slip along the
northern margin of New Guinea. The regional
deformation and en-echelon NW-SE oriented
structures at Tangguh are consistent with left-
lateral shear along E-W faults.
The timing and character of the Mesozoic
successions of the Bintuni Platform bear a strong
resemblance to the Mesozoic of the Northwest Shelf
of Australia, as several authors have suggested. The
Middle Jurassic Plover interval is thin on the
Ashmore and Sahul platforms, and thick in the
Browse, Volcan, Malita, and Calder grabens (Figure
17). Clean craton-derived quartzose sands fed
through incised valleys formed along Permian zones
of weakness (Peck, 1986; Henage, 1993). This trend
of incised feeder valley, rift graben, outer plateau is
interrupted to the northeast outboard of the Arafura
Sea and, in our opinion, reappears again on the
Bird’s Head. The eastern provenance and eastward
transgression of the Middle Jurassic sands at
Tangguh are inconsistent with the Bird’s Head’s
current location. There is no known craton to the
east of the Bird’s Head today that could have
supplied mature quartz sands to the Bintuni
Platform. The Bird’s Head is clearly out of place.
The simplest solution, and the one that we favor, is
that the Bird’s Head has rotated 50–90º counter-
clockwise and translated approximately 500 km
north from its original position adjacent to the Sahul
platform and Malita-Calder grabens of the
Northwest Shelf. It seems reasonable that Money
Shoal or the South Aru graben were feeder valleys
and may have once been continuous with the
Bintuni incised valley. The mobile belts
surrounding the Bird’s Head block further attest to
the plausibility that the Bird’s Head has been in
motion over the past 5 million years, and possibly
longer.
CONCLUSIONS
The main conclusions that we can draw from the
recent exploration activities in and around the
Bird’s Head are the following:
1. The Bird’s Head block is moving today with the
Pacific Plate.
2. Transtensional basins began opening and
compressional zones forming around the Bird’s
Head post-Kais Limestone or about 5-7 Ma.
3. The Bird’s Head block, prior to around 5-7 Ma
was part of the Northwest Shelf of Australia
4. In the past 5 to 7 million years, the Bird’s Head
block has been detached from the Northwest
Shelf and rotated counter-clockwise to its
current position.
Other interpretations are possible, if not likely, but
we feel that these conclusions are most consistent
with the geological data that has been compiled to
date.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to John Taylor and Tom Setzer for
providing the seismic mapping in Cendrawasih Bay.
TGS-NOPEC allowed us to publish their seismic
and multibeam bathymetric images in this paper.
We thank MIGAS for permission to publish this
paper.
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Figure 1 - Location map showing main geographic areas and geologic features discussed in the text of this
paper.

Figure 2 - GPS vectors in North Australia reference frame (large arrows) with 95% confidence ellipses and
site names. Dashed curves trace small circles about Bird's Head - North Australia rotation pole
and roughly bound deforming region. Triangles indicate locations of active volcanoes. BH =
Bird's Head, MR = Mapia Ridge, CB = Cenderwasih Bay, LFZ = Lowlands fault zone, PFZ =
Paniai fault zone, MTB = Mamberambo thrust belt, AB = Aru Basin, TFZ = Tarera fault zone,
MT = Manokwari trough, WT = Weyland thrust.
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Figure 3 - Centroid Moment Tensor data from the greater Bird’s Head area. Top diagram shows the “beach
balls” from earthquakes epicenters less than 40 km below the surface. Red are predominantly
compressional solutions, green are extensional, and blue are strike slip. The middle diagram
shows the fault classification and orientation. The bottom diagram shows our summary of the
current tectonic regime in the Bird’s Head area.
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Figure 4 - Geologic map of Seram Island from showing key geologic units and structural features. Insets
include a time-temperature-pressure-age plot showing the likely history of anatectic granites that
formed beneath the obducted ophiolite, and biostratigraphic subdivisions of the Oseil-1 well.
Note in particular that the Oseil-1 well spud in the Triassic, penetrated a Neogene section as
young as NN11, and TDed in the Jurassic.
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Figure 5 - Early Pliocene fully-restored cross section (top) reflecting the configuration of the northern LFB
margin prior to the onset of local thrusting and uplift. Orogenesis was underway farther to the
east at this time. Subsidence of 1300 m has been removed from the section. Late Pliocene
deformed-state cross section (bottom) showing the development of the thrust horse hindward of
the Suga Anticline. Subsidence of 1000m has been removed from the section.
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Figure 6 - Geologic Map of the Bird’s Head highlighting the distribution outcropping Miocene strata in blue
and the predominantly Plio-Pleistocene strata in yellow. The map shows also shows the retreat
of the carbonate shelf from southeast to northwest during the latest Miocene and into the early
Pliocene. This shelf edge retreat is based on subsurface data (Pertamina-Beicip Fanlab, 1992).
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Figure 7 - Structural scheme of the Misool–Onin–Kumawa Ridge on SRTM shaded topography and
bathymetry showing location of the wells and seismic lines. The MOKR is a large, 700 km long
anticline in front of the Seram wedge. Its northeastern border is prominent thanks to the
presence of a southwestward ramp-fold. In contrast, in the central MOKR and Kumawa Dome
areas, the southwestern flank is the shorter one. Two epochs of thin-skinned compressive
tectonics have been identified: an early one, during the Late Miocene, producing the majority of
the folds and thrusts composing the ridge (orange lines); and a recent one where the Seram
wedge resumes (southwest Onin Dome and west Kumawa Dome, pink lines). The non-
superposition of the MOKR axis (post-EPU) and the oldest sediments core (post-EPU) points to
the polyphased formation of the MOKR (Pairault et al., 2003). The inset is a cross-section from
seismic across the MOKR (vertical exaggeration x2).
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Figure 8 - Seismic line across the Kofiau Basin showing the post Kais growth and the main features of this
transtensional basin. Inset from Livingston (1992) shows the timing of initiation of subsidence
of the Kais Limestone and presumably the initiation of transtensional strike slip along the
Sorong Fault.
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Figure 9 - Seismic lines and bathymetric map across Cendrawasih Bay. The stratigraphic section has been
divided into Pre basin formation, Early basin, Mid basin when most of the growth in the central
basin occurred, and Late basin which is mostly infilling the low created during Early and Mid
stages. Note that east-vergent folding occurs on the west side of the basin and deforms the Early
section. West-vergent folding and faulting occurs on the east side of the basin and deforms all
basin-fill strata, including Late.
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Figure 10 - Summary of the timing and justification for the mobile belts surrounding the stable Bird’s Head
Block.
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Figure 11 - Regional bathymetry map showing the timing of events in Figure 11.

Figure 12 - Bintuni Bay location map showing the fields of the Tangguh LNG project, the regional wells,
and the location of 3D seismic data.
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Figure 13 - Vorwata-2 log with rock unit descriptions and tectonic interpretation.
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Figure 14 - A. Comparison of the Mesozoic stratigraphic section of the Bintuni Platform with that of the
Kembelangan Group in the LFB. Note the timing of deposition in the two columns is virtually
the opposite with sedimentation occurring in one area at the same time section is missing in
the other. Our explanation is shown in Figure 16. B. Diagrammatic geologic evolution of the
Bintuni and the Lengguru areas showing our interpretation for the main depositional cycles of
the Bird’s Head in these two areas.
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Figure 15 - Geologic map of the Bird’s Head showing locations of exposed Mesozoic section key results
from wells penetrating the Mesozoic. Our interpretation is that the Tangguh sands were
deposited in an east-west trending incised valley (current coordinates) with sand units
backstepping toward the provenance area to the east.
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Figure 16 - West to east seismic line across the Tangguh area and into the Bintuni Basin. Line shows the
main reservoir anticlines at Wiriagar, Roabiba, and Vorwata, and the breached structure at
Kalitami. It also shows that the timing of formation of the structures is pre-Kais Limestone.
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Figure 17 - Regional map of E Indonesia and NW Australia (after Peck, 1986) showing the distribution of
NW trending zones of weakness (blue), NE trending Jurassic rifts (green) and associated
platforms (red) with main Jurassic drainage directions shown by the yellow arrows. The red
arrow shows the Bird’s Head Block motion during the Late Neogene with the red line
depicting the dextral shear zone proposed in this study.

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