The kinematic evolution of Sulawesi’s major faults

Personnel: Ian Watkinson & Robert Hall

Themes: Subsidence, exhumation and uplift; Eastern Indonesia and the Bird’s Head

Aims

Sulawesi is an area of active strike-slip faulting, crustal-scale extension, collision, subduction, dramatic uplift and subsidence. Two major sinistral strike-slip fault systems bound a suite of postulated metamorphic core complexes that may also be actively exhuming metamorphic rocks from the mid-lower crust. This project aims to determine the age and history of fault activity.

Background

The N-S trending Palu-Koro Fault divides Sulawesi into western and eastern halves. Almost at right angles to this fault zone is the Matano Fault which is a highly segmented active strike-slip fault system trending ESE from near the southern tip of the Palu-Koro Fault. Both fault zones are seismically active but little is known of their history and timing of movements on them.

Recent Papers –

Max Webb et al., 2020. Isotopic mapping reveals the location of crustal fragments along a long-lived convergent plate boundary. Lithos.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2020.105687

Max Webb et al., 2020. The history of Cenozoic magmatism and collision in NW New Guinea – New insights into the tectonic evolution of the northernmost margin of the Australian Plate. Gondwana Research.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2019.12.010

Amy Gough et al., 2020. Mid-Cenozoic fluvio-deltaic to marine environments of the Salin Sub-basin, Central Myanmar. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2019.104143

Recent News –

Amy Gough and Max Webb attended the Restech 2.0 Virtual Reservoir Conference. Amy Gough presented new SEARG research on the pitfalls of light mineral studies for sedimentary provenance in tropical climates.

Amy Gough was awarded an honorary research fellowship of the British Geological Survey and continues to foster collaborative relationships between SEARG and the BGS.