Stratigraphic constraints on suture models for eastern Indonesia

Although collision in eastern Indonesia is now accreting the Australian con tinent to Southeast Asia, the small North and South Banda oceanic basins wi thin the suture zone are interpreted as Late Cenozoic extensional features. Stratigraphic columns from the surrounding islands conform to one of three generalised patterns, two of which can be related to the margins of SE Asi a (Sundaland) and the Australian continent, respectively. The third system, which is dominant in the outer Banda Are and eastern Sulawesi, is associat ed with a microcontinent that was rifted from Australia in the Jurassic, dr ifted northwards ahead of Australia in the Cretaceous and collided with the Sundaland Margin in the Paleogene. Subsequent collapse of the resulting co llision orogen led to rapid extension and the formation of the Banda Sea be hind the Outer Banda Are thrust belt. Eastern Indonesia thus duplicates a p attern familiar in the Mediterranean. The Tertiary compressional structures of the region cannot be explained solely in terms of the most recent colli sion, which began only in the Pliocene. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.