Geological implications of new biostratigraphic data from East and West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper presents palaeontological ages based on new nannofossil and foraminiferal studies from a range of sedimentary rocks from the provinces of West and East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The age of sedimentary rocks in Kalimantan, away from the main hydrocarbon exploration areas of the coastal regions, represents a major gap in our basic knowledge of the island of Borneo. The implications of these new results and existing and new correlations are reviewed and suggested. In particular, the base of the Tertiary section in the Kutai Basin is shown to be upper Middle Eocene in age, rather than Late Eocene as originally thought. The limestones of the Batu Belah member of the Ujoh Bilang Formation are dated as NP24–25, Late Oligocene, rather than Early Oligocene as earlier work had suggested. In the western part of the Mangkalihat Peninsula area the base of the Tertiary section is determined to be Late Oligocene. Various basement units from both East and West Kalimantan contained Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous microfossils.