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Marine and Petroleum Geology

Volume 8, Issue 1, February 1991, Pages 70-83

Paper

Tectonic evolution of eastern Indonesia and its bearing on the

occurrence of hydrocarbons
John A. Katili

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https://doi.org/10.1016/0264-8172(91)90046-4 Get rights and content

Abstract
The evolution of the eastern Indonesian island arcs over the last 30 million years has been
strongly affected by the northward drift of the Australian continent and the westward thrust of
the Pacific Plate. As Australia drifted northward, New Guinea first collided with the Sepik
island arc about 30 million years ago. About 20 million years ago, a major reorganization in
the subduction pattern of the Indonesian region took place, resulting in the formation of an
8000 km long, east-west trending arc-trench system stretching from the western tip of
Sumatra to Buru and even further to the Indonesian arc by way of Java, the Lesser Sunda
Islands, Timor, Tanimbar, Kai and Seram. Prior to the arrival of the Australian continent at
the Southeast Asian continental margin, a north-south oriented Sulawesi-Mindanao volcanic
arc existed about 800 km east of Borneo. Further to the southeast, New Guinea and Sepik, now
welded into a bigger microcontinent, collided with the Inner Melanesian island arc. This
opened the Australian Plate to the influence of the WNW moving Pacific Plate. About 10
million years ago a south dipping subduction zone broke through north of Irian Jaya but no
volcanism accompanied this process. The most dramatic event in the geologic history of

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6/18/2021 Tectonic evolution of eastern Indonesia and its bearing on the occurrence of hydrocarbons - ScienceDirect

Indonesia took place about 5 million years ago when the anticlockwise rotation of Irian Jaya
and continuous northward movement of Australia trapped the Banda Sea and caused ‘tectonic
shaving’ of the Birdhead of New Guinea along the Sorong transform fault system.
Subsequently, Buton and Sula and other microcontinents collided with Sulawesi and
Halmahera transforming the double island arcs into a K-shaped form. A small west-dipping
subduction zone developed in northern Sulawesi accompanied by active volcanoes in
Minahasa and the Sangihe island. Other small subduction zones with reverse polarities
subsequently developed in northwest Sulawesi and Halmahera, which can be held responsible
for the generation of, respectively, the active Una-Una volcano in the Gulf of Gorontalo,
Central Sulawesi, and the volcanoes in the western Halmahera arc. Active collision
accompanied by emplacement of ophiolites is presently taking place between the west-facing
Halmahera arc and the east-facing Minahasa-Sangihe arc. The tectonic evolution of eastern
Indonesia, which clearly envisaged a structural continuation of the Sunda-Banda arc and the
existence of the north-south trending Sulawesi-Mindanao arc during the Tertiary period,
could conveniently be used to explain the hydrocarbon occurrence in complex
paleosubduction or collision zones of Timor, Seram and eastern Sulawesi. Whereas oil and gas
accumulation in the pull-apart basins of Irian Jaya are found mostly in Tertiary deposits, the
source rocks in the collision zones are likely to be of Mesozoic age. Main exploration target
areas in eastern Indonesia are the intracratonic basins of the Arafura Shelf, the marginal (rift)
basins skirting the southern and eastern section of the Banda arc, the collision zones of
Timor, Seram, East Sulawesi and the thrustbelt of Irian Jaya.

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Keywords
eastern Indonesia; tectonic evolution; island arcs

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Copyright © 1991 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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