Chapter 2 Regional tectonic setting of Myanmar's petroleum basins

Abstract

The geology of the petroleum-bearing parts of Myanmar (essentially the western part of the country) is dominated by the oblique collision between the fixed Sunda Plate in the east (itself a mosaic of Gondwana-derived blocks, and since the Mesozoic a part of the much larger Asian or Eurasian Plate; Fig. 2.1) and the north-moving India Plate (e.g. Curray et al. 1979; Mitchell 1993; Curray 2005; Socquet et al. 2006; Steckler et al. 2008; Hall 2012; Rangin et al. 2013). Fig. 2.1. Present-day tectonic terranes which make up Myanmar. The Sunda Plate comprises a number of blocks which had amalgamated by the end of the Triassic, subsequently distorted by strike-slip faults and rotations. The present-day Burma Platelet acts as a buffer between the northwards ongoing movement of the India Plate and the relatively static Sunda Plate, and is responding in part by dextral movement on the north–south Sagaing Fault, shown by arrows. The magmatic arc (shown in red) is the Cretacous–Recent Popa-Taungthanlon arc; other older magmatic arcs are omitted. KF: Kabaw Fault; PF: Panlaung Fault; SF: Sagaing Fault; MPF: Mae Ping Fault; TPF: Three Pagodas Fault; KMF: Khlong Marui Fault. Before considering the origin of the component parts of Myanmar it is necessary to identify the main structural units that now comprise the western part of the country. Figure 2.1 shows the importance of the Sagaing Fault and its possible offshore continuation in separating the Burma Platelet from the Sunda Plate to its east. Here we follow the terminology of Rangin et al. (2013) in choosing to call this the Burma Platelet, although earlier it was called the Burma Plate by Curray et al. (1979), the Indo-Burma-Andaman Block by Acharyya (1998) and the West Burma Plate by others (e.g. Hall 2012; Metcalfe 2013). The …