GEODYNAMIC EVOLUTION OF EASTERN INDONESIA FROM THE EOCENE TO THE PLIOCENE

Eastern Indonesia belongs to a convergent zone between the Asiatic, Au stralian and Pacific plates. A lot of synthetic papers have been devot ed to this very technically active area. Our new geodynamic reconstruc tion takes into account a six year period of scientific cooperation be tween France and Indonesia. This cooperation provided various geologic al data. The hypothesis presented here is based on the geological evol ution of four small continental blocks (two of which appear for the fi rst time: the Banda and Lucipara blocks) trapped by the convergence oi the three main plates. The main steps are successively: the Upper Eoc ene to Oligocene during which the Banda block collided with the south east asiatic margin in Sulawesi; the Lower Miocene, during which the L ucipara block (including the Tukang Besi platform) collided with the B anda block itself, mainly in the Buton area; the Upper Miocene, which is a period of large extensional regime. Most of the basins Inside the Banda area opened at the time (North Banda Basin, South Banda Basin, Savu Basin, etc.). The next interesting period is the Upper Pliocene, which occurred after the main collisions between the Australian contin ental block and the Banda and Irian Jaya blocks. The Bangai Sula block collided with the eastern part of Sulawesi at the end of the Lower Pl iocene. (C) (Academie des sciences/Elsevier, Paris.).