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Thematic Article
Structure of Sumatra and its implications for the tectonic assembly of
Southeast Asia and the destruction of Paleotethys
ANTHONY J. BARBER1* AND MICHAEL J. CROW2
Southeast Asia Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham,
Surrey TW20 0EX, UK (email: 106731.1236@compuserve.com), and 228A Lenton Road, The Park, Nottingham
NG7 1DT, UK
INTRODUCTION
Southeast Asia is considered to be made up of a
number of continental blocks or terranes (Fig. 1),
which separated from the northern margin of the
Gondwana supercontinent in the Late Paleozoic,
and accreted to the southeastern margin of the
Eurasian continent later in the Late Paleozoic or in
*Correspondence.
Received 10 May 2007; accepted for publication 19 February 2008.
2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
20
IN
DO
IN
A
SIBUMASU
um
LA
OY
ine
YA
LA
nic
L
MA
lS
TE
W
ES
TS
UM
NE
AT
S
RA
S.W.
BORNEO
RA
INDIAN
PLATE
Te
ct
o
re
utu
bS
d ia
at
ra
ST
Me
EA
-R a u
Bentong
ANDAMAN
SEA
SOUTH
CHINA
SEA
CH
10
120
SOUTH CHINA
AO
SIM
lt
k Be
M og o
A
RM
W E S T BU
INDIA
100
(a)
Middle Triassic
102E
INDOCHINA
BLOCK
Middle Permian
Lower Permian
Alor
Star
L.Carb.
M.Triassic
5N
Semanggol
Section in B
EAST
MALAYA
L/U.Permian.
L.Carb.
L.Carb.
WEST U.Dev.
MALAYA
RAUB
L.Perm. Jengka
BENTONG
L.Permian.
L.Carb.
U.Devonian
L.Carb.
Kuala
Lumpur
L.Carb.
U.Devonian
SIBUMASU
Semanggol Formation
Bentong-Raub Suture Zone
0
(b)
100
150km
102E
10135
445
schist
serpentinite
thrust
Triassic
Granite
roa
d
Singapore
10145
10140
schist
)
an
se
Vi
t(
er
ch
50
melange
POS MERING
granite/schist
contact zone
melange
schist
chert
L.-U. Permian)
mudstone
5km
BentongRaub Zone is intruded by granites, representatives of the Main Range granites of the
western Malay peninsula, which have been dated
as having been intruded in the Late Triassic to
Early Jurassic (230207 Ma). The evidence from
the radiolarian cherts and the intrusive granites
provides constraints for the age of the collision as
Late Permian to Early Triassic.
Confirmatory evidence for the timing of this
collision event is provided by radiolarian studies
of Middle Permian, Late Permian, and Middle Triassic ribbon-bedded cherts and lensoid conodontbearing siliceous limestones in the lower Chert
Member of the Semanggol Formation near Alor
Star in the northwest Malay peninsula (Ahmad
et al. 1987; Sashida et al. 1995; Metcalfe 2000)
(Fig. 2). While Permian cherts and limestones are
interpreted as having been deposited in a pelagic
environment, Triassic foraminiferalalgal limestones and possibly the associated radiolarian
cherts were deposited in a shallower water environment. Sashida et al. (1995) supposed that the
Permian and Triassic rocks formed part of a continuous sequence, marking the transition between
the shelf and slope sediments of the Sibumasu
terrane and the deposits on the floor of the Paleotethys Ocean. They concluded, therefore, that
the collision between Sibumasu and East Malaya
occurred after the Late Triassic, following the
deposition of the complete sequence in the lower
Chert Member of the Semanggol Formation.
In their account, Sashida et al. (1995) reported
that the Permian cherts dip steeply and are tightly
folded. Metcalfe (2000) pointed out that the ages of
rocks in the sequence are repeated, implying
imbrication or isoclinal folding of the chert. On the
other hand, the Triassic cherts and overlying turbidites are only gently folded, indicating that the
Permian and Triassic cherts are separated by an
unconformity. Metcalfe (2000) therefore interpreted the Permian cherts and limestones as
pelagic sediments deposited on the Paleotethys
ocean floor and which were imbricated into an
accretionary complex. The latest Permian and the
Early Triassic are missing, representing the
unconformity, followed by the deposition of Middle
Triassic cherts, limestones, and turbiditic sandstones in a successor basin.
One problem in understanding the geology of
the western Malay peninsula has been that
although fossiliferous units are common, and units
ranging in age from Lower Paleozoic to Upper
Paleozoic have been identified, on the geological
map stratigraphic units appear to be arranged
2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
(b)
(a)
100
8
101
1 PERLIS
THAILAND
LANGKAWI ISLANDS
Kimura & Jones (1967)
Langkawi
Islands
th
ru
st
Alor Star
SIBUMASU
granite
KEDAH
i
Ab
ai
ng
Su
Locality 1
64
Devonian
HILL C
40m
20m
60
Devonian-Carboniferous
se
cti
on
0
5km
NW
SE
granite
1km
HILL B
50
72
100m
Locality 2
60m
40m
Lower Palaeozoic
10023
Devonian-Carboniferous
6232N
70
100m
Silurian
623
STRUCTURE OF SUMATRA
Barber et al. (2005) recently published a revised
synthesis for the nature and origin of the structural units that comprise Sumatra and peninsular
Malaysia, building on earlier syntheses by Hutchison (1994) and Metcalfe (1996). The pre-Tertiary
rocks of mainland Sumatra are of Carboniferous,
Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous ages.
In eastern Sumatra, Late Carboniferous to
Early Permian rocks of the Tapanuli and Tigapuluh groups are quartz-wackes, siltstones, and
shales with interbedded pebbly mudstone units,
interpreted as glaciogenic diamictites. Also
2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
PENANGAS
252Ma
106E
BANGKA ISLAND
KLABAT
BATHOLITH
KELAPA
2S
MENUBING
200Ma
TEMPILAN
MANGOL
SUMATRA
Faults
Triassic
Slates, cherts,
pillow lavas etc.
older than early
Middle Permian
CarboniferousEarly Permian
0
KULUR
PERMISAN
213Ma
Tempilang
Sandstone
BEBULU
BATHOLITH
PADING
Pemali Group
'Pebbly Mudstone'
Tapanuli Group
50km
106E
TOBOALI
225Ma
included in the Tapanuli Group are the Alas limestones (Cameron et al. 1982) containing corals,
brachiopods, and conodonts identified as a temperate fauna of Visan age (Metcalfe 1983; Fontaine
1989). East Sumatra, together with the western
Malay peninsula and the Langkawi Islands, are
regarded as part of the Sibumasu block.
In western Sumatra, Early Carboniferous rocks
of the Kluet and Kuantan formations are quartzwackes, sandstones, and shales containing fossiliferous limestone lenses (Fig. 5). The limestones
include fossil corals of Visan age, sometimes
forming reef structures, intertidal algal mats,
oolites, and pisolites, that are considered to have
formed in tropical intertidal and shallow marine
environments (Fontaine & Gafoer 1989; Vachard
1989a,b). Permian rocks include basalts, andesites,
and rhyolites of the Palepat Formation, and a
cyclic sequence of conglomerates, sandstones, and
shales interbedded with limestones and thin coals
of the Mengkarang Formation (van Waveren et al.
2005). The Mengkarang Formation contains roots
and large tree trunks up to 2 m in length, sometimes in situ, of Cordaites, Calamites, and
Taeniopteris with abundant plant fragments and
leaves in siltstones, comprising the Jambi flora
(Jongmans & Gothan 1925, 1935). The tree trunks
do not show tree rings, indicating that they grew in
a tropical environment, and the plant remains are
characteristic of the Cathaysian flora found in East
Malaya, Indochina, and southern China (VozeninSerra 1989). The intercalated limestones contain
oncolites and an abundant fusuline fauna of
2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
3
107
96
BANDA ACEH
97
98
99
104
103
102
105
106
Situtup
5N
101
100
ue
Lake
Toba
Kualu
MEDAN
Batumilmil
200km
Kaloi
k
oro
Kl
h
Bo Alas
100
SIBOLGA
WOYLA NAPPE
JurassicWoyla Group
Cretaceous
Island arc and accretionary
complex
LUBUKSIKAPING
PEKANBARU
Tanjungpuah
Ku
1S
PADANG
an
ta
Carboniferous
96
Tigapuluh
Hills
Tuhur
unconformity
Permian
Palepat, Mengkarang
95E
Tuhur
Triassic
2
Pawan
Rokan Granite
(189Ma)
Palepat
Mengkarang
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
PALEMBANG 106
Fig. 5 Distribution of the pre-Tertiary stratigraphic and tectonic units in Sumatra, based on data from the 1:250 000 geological map sheets published
by the Indonesian Geological Research and Development Centre, Bandung (after Barber et al. 2005). Darker tones indicate areas of outcrop, lighter tones
indicate that the pre-Tertiary is overlain by Tertiary and Quaternary sedimentary and volcanic rocks.
10
11
Fig. 6 Stratigraphic relationships between tectonic and stratigraphic units in Sumatra and East Malaya. Triassic rocks in similar facies extend across the
East Malaya, West MalayaEast Sumatra (Sibumasu) blocks, the Medial Sumatra Tectonic Zone and the West Sumatra block and that all tectonic units are
cut by Triassic and younger granites (after Barber et al. 2005).
12
Fig. 7 Paleontology of PermoTriassic stratigraphic units in Sumatra, data taken from Fontaine and Gafoer (1989). *, fossils diagnostic of these stages
occur in these areas. Note the apparent absence of fossils corresponding to the uppermost Permian and the lowermost Triassic stages, and that clasts
containing derived Middle Permian fusulinids are incorporated in Middle Triassic stratigraphic units (after Barber et al. 2005).
but, to the west, the northward continuity of structural units is interrupted by the Andaman Sea.
Here, since the Miocene, the continental crust has
been extended and replaced by oceanic crust, separating western Myanmar from Sumatra by some
460 km (Curray et al. 1979; Curray 2005) (Fig. 1).
In eastern Myanmar, the Shan Plateau is composed of a Proterozoic, Cambrian, to Early Permian
succession, including Late CarboniferousEarly
Permian diamictites (Mergui Group) and so forms
part of the Sibumasu (ShanThai) block (Fig. 9).
The western margin of the block is marked by the
Mogok Metamorphic Belt, 1400 km long, which
contains high to low grade metamorphic rocks,
migmatites, mylonites, and marbles with (?) Early
Carboniferous fossils (Mitchell et al. 2007). The
marbles included in the Mogok Belt are regarded as
the metamorphosed equivalents of the Cambrian to
Devonian limestones of the plateau succession in
the Shan Plateau to the east. Mitchell et al. (2007)
suggested that the Mogok Belt represents the
deformed and uplifted margin of the ShanThai
(Sibumasu) block. The Mogok Belt is intruded by
Situtup
TAKENGON
KU
U
AL
Kaloi
LAKE
TOBA
MEDAN
AS
IN
Batumilmil
N
SI
H
BA
HIG
YA
ALA
T M ault
N
TA
EAS
ir F
N
A
Leb
n
ta
SEM
Hamu
H
SI
G
HIGKer
BA
HI
E
)
ne
ANG
RA Zo
MAIN R
US
T
UR
AT nic
MU
H
M ecto
OL SEMANGG
TU
SUtra T
L ma
IA l Su
ED dia
M (Me
BANDA ACEH
100
LANGKAWI
Kodiang
MALACCA
Cubadak
Fa
ul
t
Sawahlunto
PADANG
JAMBI
N
SI
BA
BINTAN
KUNDUR
PEKANBARU
300km
KUALA
LUMPUR
Sibaganding
Fig. 8 Middle to late Triassic paleogeography in the Malay peninsula and Sumatra. A
submarine horst and graben structure is postulated, based on the distribution of the
carbonate and the chertclastic facies, where
the carbonates were deposited on the horsts,
especially along their margins, and the cherts
and rhythmites were deposited in the intervening sediment-starved graben (after Barber
et al. 2005).
200
13
LINGGA
SINGKEP
BANGKA
Belinyo
PALEMBANG
BENGKULU
BANDAR
LAMPUNG
14
la
Hima
96
28
yas
Karmine
CHINA
Ga
nga
w
Magma
tic Ar
c
NAPP
E
R.
Jade
Belt
- BURMAN R
INDO
ANG
ES
MAWGYI
Kum
INDIA
24
Shan Thai
(Sibumasu) Block
Late Cretaceous
Granites
an R.
28N
24
Mogok
Mawgyi Nappe
= Woyla Nappe
Ophiolites
Mandalay
Mount Victoria
metamorphics
SHAN
Mount
Victoria
PLATEAU
20
Fault
Sagaing
20
YANGON
THAILAND
Cenozoic Accretionary
Complexes
Deformation Front
Strike-Slip Fault
Moulmein
16
16
ANDAMAN SEA
0
200km
98
Mawgyi nappe, as has been suggested for metamorphic rocks in a similar relationship to the
Woyla nappe in West Sumatra (Barber et al. 2005,
p. 249). The implication of this correlation is that
the whole of western Myanmar, from the Mogok
Belt to the IndoBurman Ranges and the Mount
Victoria Land of Mitchell (1989), and the West
Burma block of Hutchison (1989) and Metcalfe
(1996), is the northward extension of the West
Sumatra block.
Unfortunately, western Myanmar is covered
largely by Tertiary and Quaternary sediments and
volcanics, so that exposures of the underlying
basement are rare. However, this correlation is
strengthened by the occurrence of Triassic turbidites, mudstones, and limestones along the western
margin of the West Burma block, which are
deformed, metamorphosed, and overthrust by
ophiolites of the Mawgyi nappe. Although no
cherts are recorded amongst these turbidites they
occupy a similar position along the western margin
of the West Burma block to the Triassic Tuhur
15
Fig. 10 Comparison of the Permian Fusilinacean faunas of Central Tethys (Paleotethys), Myanmar, the West Sumatra block and South China. Data from
Fontaine and Gafoer (1989), Oo et al. (2002), Ross (1995) and Ueno et al. (2006). Note that in Myanmar the fauna of the Thitispin limestone Formation has
no fusulinid genera in common with the fauna in the Karmine area, while Parafusulina sp. and Rugoschwagerina sp. occur at Karmine and in the Situtup
Formation and the Muarasipongi areas in the West Sumatra block.
16
cherts, but the environmental conditions in a sedimentary basin. Radiolaria are deposited on the
seafloor where other sedimentary material is not
available, in areas remote from a terrigenous
source, as in the major ocean basins, or where the
supply of clastic sediment is restricted by the
aridity or submergence of potential source areas,
and where the supply of carbonate material is
restricted by the carbonate compensation depth
(CCD) and its relationship to the depth of the basin
floor. The CCD can vary locally and over time, as it
depends on the chemistry and the temperature
of the seawater (cf. TriassicJurassic European
margins of Tethys: Bernouilli & Jenkyns 1974).
In many of the occurrences of Triassic radiolarian chert studied by Sashida and co-workers in
Thailand and Malaysia (e.g. Sashida et al. 1995,
2000a,b), older stratigraphic units of Carboniferous or Permian ages show evidence of internal
deformation by intense shearing or cleavage, while
the Triassic rocks may be folded or faulted, but are
rarely internally deformed. It is the age of the
internal deformation which indicates the age of
the collision between Sibumasu and Indochina;
less deformed Triassic cherts and clastics may
have been deposited on the top of the deformed
rocks subsequent to the collision. In northern
Thailand, Helmcke and co-workers (e.g. Helmcke
1984; Helmcke et al. 1985; Heggemann et al. 1994)
described deformed Carboniferous and Permian
rocks overlain unconformably by undeformed Triassic rocks which were deposited in extensional
half-graben (Drumm et al. 1993), and concluded
that the collision of the ShanThai (Sibumasu)
and Indochina blocks, with the destruction of
Paleotethys occurred in the Late Permian or
Early Triassic.
In many occurrences of radiolarian Triassic
chert studied by Sashida and colleagues (Sashida
et al. 1995; Kamata et al. 2002), the cherts are
associated, and sometimes closely interbedded,
with terrigenous siltstones or fine sandstones, and
carbonates. They interpret this association as indicating deposition on a continental margin, with the
cherts being deposited on the continental slope
leading down onto the deep ocean floor. The relationship between the cherts and the other lithologies could equally well be interpreted as the result
of fluctuations in the environment, by changes in
sealevel or climate, leading to increased erosion of
the land areas, the increased supply of terrigenous
sediment, and to changes in the level of the CCD in
basins developed on continental crust. These possibilities, together with evidence from the struc 2008 The Authors
Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
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18
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