Early Cretaceous origin of the Woyla Arc (Sumatra, Indonesia) on the Australian plate

Abstract

Key to understanding the plate kinematic evolution of the Neotethys oceanic domain that existed between the Gondwana-derived Indian and Australian continents in the south, and Eurasia in the north, is the reconstruction of oceanic plates that are now entirely lost to subduction. Relics of these oceanic plates exist in the form of ophiolites and island arcs accreted to the orogen that stretches from Tibet and the Himalayas to SE Asia that formed the southern margin of Sundaland. The intra-oceanic Woyla Arc thrusted over western Sundaland – the Eurasian core of SE Asia – in the mid-Cretaceous. The Woyla Arc was previously interpreted to have formed above a west-dipping subduction zone in the Early Cretaceous, synchronous with east-dipping subduction below Sundaland. The oceanic ‘Ngalau Plate’ between the Woyla Arc and Sundaland was lost to subduction. We present paleomagnetic results from Lower Cretaceous limestones and volcaniclastic rocks of the Woyla Arc, Middle Jurassic radiolarian cherts of the intervening Ngalau Plate, and Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous detrital sediments of the Sundaland margin. Our results suggest that the Woyla Arc was formed around equatorial latitudes and only underwent an eastward longitudinal motion relative to Sundaland. This is consistent with a scenario where the Woyla Arc was formed on the edge of the Australian plate. We propose a reconstruction where the Ngalau Plate formed a triangular oceanic basin between the N–S trending Woyla Arc and the NW-SE trending Sundaland margin to account for the absence of accreted arc rocks in the Himalayas. As consequence of this triangular geometry, accretion of the Woyla Arc to the western Sundaland margin was diachronous, accommodated by a southward migrating triple junction. Continuing convergence of the Australia relative to Eurasia was accommodated by subduction polarity reversal behind the Woyla Arc, possibly recorded by Cretaceous ophiolites in the Indo-Burman Ranges and the Andaman-Nicobar Islands.