The character and significance of basement rocks of the southern Molucca Sea region

Abstract

Pre-Neogene basement rocks in the southern Molucca Sea region include ophiolitic rocks, arc volcanic rocks and continental rocks. The ophiolitic complexes are associated with arc and forearc igneous and sedimentary rocks. They are interpreted as the oldest parts of the Philippine Sea Plate with equivalents in the ridges and plateaux of the northern Philippine Sea. In the Molucca Sea region igneous components include rocks with a “supra-subduction zone” character, bonintic volcanic rocks and basic volcanic rocks with a “within-plate” character; “MORB-type” rocks are rare or absent. The ophiolitic rocks are overlain by Upper Cretaceous and Eocene sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Plutonic rocks of island arc origin which intrude the ophiolites yield Late Cretaceous radiometric ages and amphibolites with ophiolitic protoliths yield Eocene ages. The “supra-subduction zone” ophiolites are speculated to have originated during a mid-Cretaceous plate reorganization event. For the Late Cretaceous and Eocene the present-day Marianas arc and forearc provides an attractive model. Volcanic rocks from the basement of Morotai, western Halmahera and much of Bacan. These also have an island arc character and are probably of Late Cretaceous-Paleogene age. Both the arc volcanic rocks and the ophiolitic complexes are overlain by shallow water Eocene limestones and an Oligocene rift sequence including basaltic pillow lavas and volcaniclastic turbidites. The distribution of the Eocene-Oligocene sequences indicate pre-Mid/Late Eocene amalgamation of the ophiolitic and arc terranes. Mid Eocene-Oligocene extension appears to be synchronous with opening of the central West Philippine Basin. Continental crust probably arrived in this region in the Late Paleogene-Early Neogene, either due to collision of the Australian margin with Pacific arc-ophiolite terranes or by terrane movement along the Sorong Fault Zone.