Hall - 1996 SE Asia Reconstruction

Reconstructing Cenozoic SE Asia
ROBERT HALL
SE Asia Research Group, Department of Geology,
Royal Holloway,University of London, Egham TW20 OEX, UK
Abstract: Reconstructions of SE Asia at 5 Ma intervals for the past 50 Ma are presented. They
are constrained by new data from the Philippine Sea plate, which forms the eastern boundary of
the region, by recent interpretations of the South China Sea and Eurasian continental margin,
forming the western boundary, and by the known motions of the Indian-Australian plate to the
south. An attempt is made to satisfy geological and palaeomagnetic data from the region. The
implications of these reconstructions for the Tertiary evolution of SE Asia are discussed in the
light of other new data from the region. There are two regionally important periods of change
during the past 50 Ma. Both appear to be the expression of arc—continent collision and resulted
in major changes in the configuration of the region and in the character of plate boundaries. At
c. 25 Ma the collision of the Australian continent with the Philippine Sea plate arc caused major
effects which propagated westwards through the region. At c. 5 Ma collision of the Philippine arc
and the Eurasian continental margin occurred in Taiwan. This appears to be a key to the recent
tectonics of the region. Principal features of the model include the following interpretations.
Middle Tertiary counter-clockwise rotation of Borneo closed a large proto-South China Sea and
led to the development and destruction of marginal basins north of the Celebes Sea. The rotation
implies that much of the north Borneo margin was not a subduction, but a strike-slip boundary
for most of this period. It also suggests that the central West Philippine Sea, the Celebes Sea and
the Makassar Strait formed part of a single marginal basin which opened between late Eocene
and mid Oligocene, and narrowed westwards like the present South China Sea. Luzon is
suggested to have formed in an arc on the north side of the Celebes Sea—West Philippine Basin,
whereas most of the other Philippine islands probably formed part of an arc at the southern edge
of the Philippine Sea Plate before the Early Miocene. Arc—continent collision in the early
Miocene caused plate boundaries to change and initiated the clockwise rotation of the Philippine
Sea plate. Since then the Philippine fragments have moved in a very narrow zone, mainly as part
of the Philippine Sea plate, with significant strike-slip motion of fragments at the plate margin.
Most subduction under the Philippines was oblique, mainly at the western edge, and north of
Mindanao. The Molucca Sea was a very wide area which formed part of the Philippine Sea plate
before c. 15 Ma and originated as trapped Indian ocean lithosphere. It has been eliminated by
subduction on its east and west sides. The present-day double subduction system never extended
north of the present Molucca Sea into the Philippines. The Sulawesi ophiolite has an Indian ocean
origin and was emplaced on the west Sulawesi continental margin at the end of the Oligocene.
The major change in plate boundaries at the beginning of the Miocene following arc—continent
collision of the Australian margin with the Philippine Sea plate arc caused initiation of the Sorong
Fault system and led to westward movement of continental fragments which were accreted to
Sulawesi during the late Neogene. The Sula platform and Tukang Besi platform formed part of a
single large microcontinent with the Bird’s Head before c. 15 Ma. They moved to their present
positions after slicing of fragments from this microcontinent at different times and each was
attached to the Philippine Sea plate for a few million years before collision. Most of the Banda
Sea is interpreted to have an extensional origin and to have opened during the late Neogene. The
reconstructions imply that there has been little convergence at the north Australian margin in
Irian Jaya since the early Miocene and most convergence has occurred during the last c. 5 Ma.
Movement of Philippine Sea arc fragments within the northern New Guinea margin along strike-
slip zones probably accounts for the terrane character of this orogenic belt.
Plate tectonic reconstructions of SE Asia have understanding more fundamental processes that
some obvious practical value for the region in have acted. What are the important controls on
helping to understand the development of sedi- the tectonic development of the region (e.g. the
mentary basins, the history of volcanic arc role of indentor tectonics), what are the critical
activity, and similar processes which are linked events (e.g. different types of collision event),
through tectonics to the distribution of natural and what is the nature of deformation (e.g. rigid
resources. Reconstructions are also a necessary plate versus distributed deformation)? How far
precursor to can plate
From Hall, R. & Blundell, D. (eds), 1996, Tectonic Evolution of Southeast Asia, 153
Geological Society Special Publication No. 106, pp. 153—184.
154 R. HALL
tectonics go in describing the development of 50 Ma as Figs 2-11.

the region and the behaviour of crust and Details of rotation poles, and fragments used,
lithosphere (e.g. what is the role of strike-slip are
faulting versus contraction in the development
of young orogenic belts)? Similar, more general
questions have relevance to collision processes
and to the understanding of ancient orogenic
belts for which parts of SE Asia have often been
used as analogues.
During the Cenozoic the region which now
forms SE Asia was bounded to the north and
west by a Eurasian plate, and to the south by the
Indian— Australian plate. The motions of these
plates are reasonably well known and their
positions provide limits to the zone within
which the SE Asian collage of microplates and
sub-plate fragments can be moved when
attempting plate reconstructions. The boundaries
provided by these plate motions have been used
as limits in previous reconstructions of Cenozoic
SE Asia (e.g. Rangin et al. 1990; Daly et al.
1991; Lee & Lawver 1994). There have been
considerable differences in dealing with the eastern
boundary of the region. At present, the eastern
edge of SE Asia is bounded by the Philippine
Sea plate but the motion of this plate has been
difficult to link to the global plate circuit
because it is surrounded by subduction zones. Its
Tertiary movement history has proved
controversial, as illustrated by previous
reconstructions, and there are major
uncertainties in the position of the eastern edge
of the region. Rangin et al. (1990) accepted
evidence for clockwise rotation of the plate
whereas Daly et al. (1991) and Lee & Lawver
(1994) did not.
Hall et al. (1995b) used palaeomagnetic data
from east Indonesia to estimate Tertiary poles of
rotation for the Philippine Sea plate and made a
new reconstruction of this plate based on these
poles, incorporating the effects of marginal
basin opening within the plate. Discontinuous
clockwise rotation for the entire plate during the
last 50 Ma leads to palaeolatitude predictions
which closely fit all palaeomagnetic data and also
satisfies con- straints on rotation inferred from
magnetic anomaly skewness and seamount
magnetization studies from the Philippine Sea
plate. This model has been used to define the
eastern margin of SE Asia as the basis for
reconstructing the region using the ATLAS
computer program (Cambridge Paleomap Services
1993) for the last 50 Ma. Figure1 shows the
present geography of the region and identifies
the principal tectonic elements used in the
reconstructions. Approximately sixty fragments
(the number changes with age) have been used
in reconstructing the region. Mercator
projections showing reconstructions of the area
bounded by latitudes 20°S and 30°N, and
longitudes 90°E and 160°E, are presented for 5,
10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and
listed in Tables 1 and 2 which are available as
Supplementary Publication No. SUP18101 (5
pp) from the Society Library or the British
Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa,
Wetherby, W Yorks LS23 7BQ, UK. The
reconstruction is also available as an animation,
on floppy discs, which can be run on either a
Windows-based PC or a Mac with adequate
hard disc space. Contact the author for details.
Methods
ATLAS model
The ATLAS model uses a palaeomagnetic
reference frame with Africa as the reference
fragment with its movement defined relative to
magnetic north. Movements of other major
plates relative to Africa are based on Cande &
Leslie (1986), Cochran (1981), Fisher &
Sclater (1983), Klitgord & Schouten (1986), Le
Pichon & Francheteau (1978), McKenzie ef al.
(1970), Royer & Sandwell (1989), Sclater et al.
(1981), Ségoufin & Patriat (1980) and
Srivastava & Tapscott (1986). In these
reconstructions South China is used as a
reference and this is fixed to Eurasia for the
period 50—0 Ma. There has been little
Cenozoic motion of Eurasia whichever
reference frame is used (e.g. Livermore et al.
1984; Gordon & Jurdy 1986; Besse & Courtillot
1991; Van der Voo 1993) and therefore it remains
in a similar position to the present-day in all the
reconstructions. In the ATLAS model there are
small movements of Eurasia owing to the plate
circuit used, particularly in the last 5 Ma, and
therefore there are minor differences compared
to reconstructions which use a fixed Eurasia
(Lee & Lawver 1994; Rangin et al. 1990).
Palaeomagnetic data
The model attempts to include the important
con- straints imposed by palaeomagnetism.
Palaeo- magnetic data can help to put some
limits on interpretation of geological data since
in principle they provide indications of
palaeolatitudes and rotations. Interpretation is
not always simple, and in SE Asia it is
particularly difficult to reach un- ambiguous
solutions. Van der Voo (1993) discusses in detail
the use and problems of using palaeomagnetic
results, and provides a particularly clear
summary of problems in SE Asia. Besides the
obvious drawbacks of collecting data in
predomi- nantly tropical, remote and often
harsh terrain, there are additional problems
such as error limits, remagnetization, and
equatorial ambiguities. Not least amongst these
are the difficulties of deciding
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Reconstructing Cenozoic SE Asia

tectonics go in describing the development of 50 Ma as Figs 2-11.

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