Themes: Sedimentology and provenance; Eastern Indonesia and the Bird’s Head
Aims
This project uses light and heavy mineral analyses, as well as zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating to fill existing gaps in our knowledge and to answer the following questions: • Where exactly do the Mesozoic siliciclastic sediments from Sumba, Timor, Babar and Tanimbar come from? • Which pathways are likely to supply sediment and how do they correlate to the NW shelf of Australia? • What are the main sources/source lithologies for these sedimentary rocks? • Do we need to consider new source areas? • How far are the results consistent with existing palaeogeographic models?
Background
Sandstones in the Banda Arc Islands are thought to be the equivalent of Mesozoic sandstones on the Australian margin which are important potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. They have been exposed by ongoing collision, resulting in the opportunity to study their provenance. No detrital zircon or heavy mineral data were available at the beginning of this project. This lack of data limited our ability to assess palaeogeographic models for this region and correlate sequences between islands.
